one has only to look at nearby Russia, "blessed" with endless supplies of pretty much all kinds of natural resources, and never able to jump out of their poverty.

There is a form of responsibility which comes from the requirement to run a tight ship - the important item being the notion of "ship", i.e. self-contained, with no outside savior to help you if you run out of resources. If you are dependent on outside resources (as Japan and much or Europe for energy) you need to have something of value to provide in return, and that certainly makes you a lot more serious about working enough and well.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes