Also, they produce the *wrong* stuff. For example, where I live, they used to produce sugar cane, which had to be sold to England, because they were a British colony. Then England would refine it into baking sugar and confectioner's sugar, and sell it back at a huge profit. Same for cocoa beans or raw cotton, versus chocolate and clothing. If you produce the commodity product at the bottom of the pyramid, you make very little money, compared to the higher-value products at the top of the pyramid, which have a much greater profit.