ABSTRACT
Economic development could be treated in the textbook in various ways. It could deal with the historical development of the West out of a feudal system or the economic development of the United States, though both of these are usually left to economic history books. Usually the focus is upon the less developed areas of the world, primarily in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, where about three-fourths of the world population lives. Since World War II and the decline of the colonial system, much attention has been on the question of how, and even whether, these areas and the majority of the human race can escape the poverty trap as have most people in the more industrialized countries. It would certainly seem as though this issue should be considered as vastly more important than most of the other things analyzed in the textbook, or many of the other things with which we concern ourselves. But the question is, how do the things we have learned in other contexts apply to this big problem, and what else is important in this connection. Indeed what, if anything, can any readers of the textbook do about the matter anyway, individually or as citizens with their own votes on government policies.
