The movie Devotion tells the story of Jesse Brown, the first Black aviator in U.S. Navy history, and his friendship with Tom Hudner, who became the Navy's most celebrated wingmen. The film makes points about race, friendship, heroism and the Korean War, sometimes referred to as the forgotten war. Those are important, but the movie offers forgotten economic lessons for today as well.
The two Koreas that emerged from the disaster of war offer a case study in what causes economic development, that is, poverty reduction. The Koreas are an important experiment because, as in all good scientific experiments, only one variable changed - the economic institutions. Before World War I, Korea had been unified for twelve centuries. The culture and language were uniform, and the “Hermit” kingdom was one of the poorest on the planet.
