Why do these five countries historically have the highest

See how none of them participated in World War I and World War II?

>>1428908
Is th8s some meme I'm not aware of?

>>1428908
The fuck are you smoking?

>>1428908
That's not true. The only country not participating was Switzerland. The Netherlands and Denmark were invaded quikly but suffered much damage in the war. Norway fought the nazis of for 2 months and was after occupied and the Australians had to fight off the Japanese.

>>1428908
>Australia
>Netherlands
what

>>1428929
The Australians did a lot of fighting in North Africa and the Mediterranean prior to '42

>>1428895
As far as I can see (as a Dutchman myself, in as far as that matters), what these countries have in common are the following three factors:

1. They're developed countries
2. They're small countries (Straya is pretty small too if you cut out all the FUCKING NOTHING, just like Norway)
3. They're incredibly irrelevant

Unlike major nations like the USA or France or Britain they don't need to spend a lot of money on the military or diplomatic representation or foreign ties or this or that, because nobody even cares what they do. Most of their money is therefore spent internally.

And then there's also the problem that for developed countries HDI has some pretty retarded standards. For example, when looking at third world countries expected/mean years of schooling is a good way to measuer development. For developed countries it's not, as spending too much time in education is actually negative (it implies you had to redo a year, or spend time hopping from education to education because you can't find a job).

>>1428957
congratulation

>>1428895
>Why do these five countries historically have the highest Human Development now?
They didn't. Norway was a poor shithole before the 50's, but I digress:
1. Norway has a shitton of oil reserves for a small nation
2. Australia has mines and gas supporting half their economy
3. Switzerland has Jewgolds
4. Denmark stands between a major European trade route
5. 40% of the Dutch economy is supported by Shell.

>>1428990
>Norway was a poor shithole before the 50's

It wasn't any worse than Denmark or Sweden.

We had 10% less GDP than Sweden before we found oil, which is to be expected since they had a larger population.

File: australia wealth profile.png (78KB, 1031x462px) Image search: [Google]

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It's also worth noting that, despite wildly different taxation policies, immigration policies and such, they all have large and wealthy middle classes.

File: switzerland wealth profile.png (78KB, 1025x476px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1428998

File: united states wealth profile.jpg (81KB, 1055x479px) Image search: [Google]

81KB, 1055x479px

>>1429003
The US for comparison.

>>1428895
>Why do these five countries historically have the highest Human Development now?
Historically or now? Norway wasn't really anything to write home about until fairly recently.

Australia has a lot of natural resources: iron, coal, natural gas and even oil. The government isn't too corrupt or tyrannical like most of Africa's or South America's. It's pretty much settled in a cozy democracy.

Switzerland is really hard to successfully invade and they try to keep themselves out of other countries' troubles. They don't suffer many losses due to wars in Europe, it's just business as usual for them.

>>1428998
The gap between median and mean wealth is relatively small here. Suppose that means it has fewer super-rich skewing the mean up than the other two?

>>1428964
Only America spends a significant % of GDP more than The Netherlands on foreign relations/military.

Our (US) problem is a certain third world ethnicity in our country.

>>1428990
>They didn't. Norway was a poor shithole before the 50's

95% sure this is an American.

>>1429064
>Norway wasn't really anything to write home about until fairly recently.

It was top 20 since 1920's.

>>1428895
>historically

>>1428895
Peripherical countries + functioning governments.

I.e. irrelevant states.

>>1428990

american education, everyone

>>1428908
>what is ANZAC
>what is japanese pacific invasion
>what is german invasion of scandinavia
>what is gurkha legions
>what is middle eastern theathre

you surely never read anything about WWI or WWII