Why are some countries rich and some poor ?

3 main factors
1. institutions
  1. Rich coutnries tend to have good constitutions
  2. Poor countries tend to have very bad constitutions
  3. Richest countries tend to be less corupt
  4. Poorest countries are generally the most corupt
    1. Unable to gain taxes from the popualtion
    2. Half of the wealth the worlds poorest 20 countries goes into offshore accounts
    3. Without good tax base the country is unable to invest in police, health care, education and transport
    4. "clan" based thinking
      1. Lack of access to talent and intellegence within a population
2. Culture
  1. Generally the less people that believe in religion the richer you are likely to be
    1. 19 of the richest countries in the world show 70% of their population say religion is of no importance at all to them
      1. USA is the exception
        Version of christianity provides incentive to improve now, unlike others to look forward to 'another life'
    2. The poorest countries in the world sometimes have up to 100% of their population saying that religion is extremely important to them
  2. Religion gives the belief that the here and now cannot be improved
    1. Focus on spiritual and look forward to a next world in stead
  3. Affluent countries believe that they can alter their here and now through effort and talent
3. Physical geography
  1. Poor countries tend to be located in the tropical regions
    1. Life is simply tougher there
    2. Plants are less efficient and don't contain as much carbohydrates
      1. Disadvantagous to photosynthesis
    3. Wealth was determined by ones ability to ow large domesticated animals
      1. Meant farmers didn't have to plow the land by hand
    4. Preveneted the countries from developing advance technology and improve farming productivity
    5. More prone to diseases
      1. All low income countries are affected by at least 5 different tropical diseases
    6. Lack of water sources
  2. Richer countries have developed best 16 degrees c
  3. Poorer countries tend to be land locked and have poor connections with other contries
  4. Natural resources
    1. With a good institution it will make the country richer, but poorer if they have a bad institution
      1. Elites in these countries take the wealth from natural resources in a bad constitution
        Provides military or other groups money for weapons and guns

Next up

Why are some countries rich and some poor ?

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by James Howlett about 7 years ago