Taking Europe, for example, our ancestors would not have survived without their adaptation to the climate and its consequences, breeding cooperation, empathy, industry, invention, efficiency, etc. A frivolous, impulsive, unintelligent people seeking immediate gratification would not have survived the winter.
In the article the Dutch disease is mentioned. It has three effects:
1. It makes the other exports less competitive (why bother with abundant resources?)
2. Imports financed by natural resources revenues increase, appreciating the currency (a double whammy for exports)
3. This causes a shift away from manufacture and similar industries rendering the economy more dependent on natural resources
I also think natural resources can be grabbed by individuals more easily than the skilfulness of a people leading to higher income inequality.
Are these things that can be naturally selected for?
>...would not have survived the winter.
The Arab petro states are also economically well off despite their financial dependence on revenues from the world's most globally vital natural resource. (we can forego mentioning their state of political development though). One the other end, there are many countries with few natural resources worth a damn that also happen to be severely underdeveloped, and political basket cases.
The US has a huge number of insanely wealthy people and a large percentage of people "above the poverty line", but the people under the poverty line live a life that is almost a distant from you as you are from a typical multimillionaire, and there are easily millions of them.
Truly, go live in a developing country, even one that's considered decently wealthy by the standards of developing countries (Mexico is a good example) and you'll see the difference very quickly if you leave any of the compact, wealthy, tourist-oriented bubbles of society.
I live in such a country and comparing it to the U.S. as a whole is absurd. Even most of poor America is absurdly wealthy and reasonably well run by the standards of much of the world, though as your example shows, exceptions do apply, though they're not always by forced circumstance so much as unconscious choice.
