Now, if we could only get rid of evil men like Mugabe, and the various others who still hang on to the failed experiments of socialism/communism, we might have a chance to see increased prosperity throughout the world.
I would bet a large sum that there is a direct co-relation between certain "wealth" indicators and birthrates, with a lag of course, that depends on the free disemination of direct information, cultural deference to authority, religeous upbringing, and general immunity to "alarmest" effects.
Perhaps something as simple as the availability of milk, amount of life-threatening crime, or the simple freedom to defend oneself.