If the "vicious cycle" argument was correct, formerly poor nations could not have advanced, Bauer argued, nor would the "massive accumulation of capital" by poor immigrants in many underdeveloped areas have been possible. He cited the cash crops of the rubber industry in Malaya and West Africa as examples of rapid—though admittedly uneven—growth spurred by private investment. Bauer warned against identifying low-level development with stagnation because of a lack of industry. Though admitting that industrial investment is measured more easily, Bauer argued that agricultural investment is "highly important in the early stages of economic advance" and essential (food) to the fundamental needs in most countries (Bauer 1958a, 143).

Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, loc. 1317