[anolbom]

What about the fact that America was a British colony, Canada a British and French colony, Austrailia was a British colony, ect and they've done one hellava job at it so far? Does this not speak to the culture rather than the environment? Does it always have to be someone else's fault for that person's failure?

The difference is that the US, Canada and Australia where special colonies. The colonists there largely replaced the traditional populations. In these regards they were more like new European realms rather than. As such they were designed from pretty early on less on merely exploiting the population and the country and more towards constructing more sustainable states in their own right.

Another important aspect was that as most of the people there were immigrants themselves, after independence they did not have such a heavy baggage of tribal history and local conflicts.