Some societies are poor and have seemingly intractable problems because
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2, 1, 3: 60%, 30%, 10%. Culture is the carefully calibrated collective environmental adaptation of the group given their biological dispositions and capacities, which are primary. The west probably didn't help much in many cases but not primary or sufficient
The west may have disrupted the "social tech" of these places though in counterproductive ways. Certainly slavery in western countries was a social tech amputation, not sure how complete western colonial cultural supremacy was in these places themselves though.
