Wait, what? There are numerous countries with the resource curse; the typical result is, "wow, they're not growing as fast as they could"; it's not "so devastated that people have to hunt for rats in the street".

Even Saudi Arabia -- which does redistribute oil wealth like Venezuela and is far from the enlightened Norweigian policy -- is smart enough not to draw down the seed corn.

And are you seriously claiming the only thing stopping West Virginia from this kind of downward spiral, is free highways from Uncle Sam?