Brazil, South Korea, and the middle-income trap (2020)

Brazil has the one counterexample that it makes very good airplanes such as

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_E-Jet_E2_family

I rode in one of these and it is like Buck Rodger's spaceship compared to the Boeing 737. It's got less range than the 737 (it can't fly from NYC to LA but Southwest could serve CONUS from Love Field in Texas with it) but the fuel efficiency is great.

More to the point, it feels huge on the inside even though it is smaller than the 737. It's something you have to experience to believe. The comfort is more like a widebody 767 because Brazil did what Japan did to cars.

It's all the more remarkable when you realize that Embraer is the #3 airplane manufacturer in the world and there is no #4 that widely exports planes.

Boeing could go the way American Steel US market power to make it very hard for you to fly the E195 and love it.

Brazil has also been innovative in developing biofuel technology that hasn't been successful elsewhere. When I visited Brazil I had the feeling I had visited "another civilization" more than I have any place else I've been to just from the feel of the infrastructure.