The question arises from a discussion between my wife (mexican/english) and myself (italian/german) about the differences between Mexico and the US. Why is the US so much better off? For that matter why are the rich countries rich and the poor ones poor.
oops, hit post before I could add more... Below is a chart of the top 3 rankings of the UN developmental index, it measures comparative measure of poverty, literacy, education, life expectancy, childbirth, and other factors for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being. Below that one is a chart of the top 3 ranks of Gross Domestic Product by per capita 1 Norway 0.963 2 Iceland 0.956 3 Australia 0.955 4 Luxembourg 0.949 5 Canada 0.949 6 Sweden 0.949 7 Switzerland 0.947 8 Ireland 0.946 9 Belgium 0.945 10 United States 0.944 11 Japan 0.943 12 Netherlands 0.943 13 Finland 0.941 14 Denmark 0.941 15 United Kingdom 0.939 16 France 0.938 17 Austria 0.936 18 Italy 0.934 19 New Zealand 0.933 20 Germany 0.930 21 Spain 0.928 22 Hong Kong, China (SAR)* 0.916 23 Israel 0.915 24 Greece 0.912 25 Singapore 0.907 26 Slovenia 0.904 27 Portugal 0.904 28 Republic of Korea 0.901 29 Cyprus 0.891 30 Barbados 0.878 31 Czech Republic 0.874 32 Malta 0.867 33 Brunei Darussalam 0.866 34 Argentina 0.863 35 Hungary 0.862 36 Poland 0.858 37 Chile 0.854 38 Estonia 0.853 39 Lithuania 0.852 40 Qatar 0.849 41 United Arab Emirates 0.849 42 Slovakia 0.849 GDP per capita 1 Luxembourg 69,800 2 Norway 42,364 3 United States 41,399 4 Ireland 40,610 5 Iceland 35,586 6 Denmark 34,737 7 Canada 34,273 8 Austria 33,615 9 Hong Kong, SAR 33,411 10 Switzerland 32,571 11 Qatar 31,397 12 Belgium 31,244 13 Finland 31,208 14 Australia 30,897 15 Netherlands 30,862 16 Japan 30,615 17 Germany 30,579 18 United Kingdom 30,470 19 Sweden 29,898 20 France 29,316 21 Italy 28,760 22 Singapore 28,100 23 United Arab Emirates 27,957 24 Republic of China (Taiwan) 27,572 25 Spain 26,320 26 Brunei 24,826 27 New Zealand 24,769 28 Israel 23,416 29 Netherlands Antilles 22,750 30 Greece 22,392 31 Slovenia 21,911 32 Cyprus 21,232 33 South Korea 20,590 34 The Bahamas 20,076
Sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Development_Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita Basically I want to know what the richer countries have in common.
I think there are two critical factors: 1. Average intelligence (IQ) 2. Integrity of the political and legal systems.
What an utterly stupid thing to say. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! That's a much more sensible rationale.
(i) A massive amount and variety of natural resources, (ii) an industrious population that has efficiently exploited them, (iii) a relatively stable political and legal system.
HR I think you've hit the nail on the head - Type of government doesnt seem to matter, as long as its relatively stable and doesnt syphon off too much capital - A workforce that is willing to work hard - And something to work with I hadnt thought of it until now, but I was living in Germany right after the wall went down, my landlord (who lived right above me) was always complaining that the east Germans didnt seem to want to work much (sorry if this offends someone, it's what he said). I went to east Germany a few times me and it forcibly struck me how poor and run down it was. I also took a trip to St Petersburg (Leningrad) and other than the museums and public buildings it was also fairly run down. They were missing one of the critical 3 factors for prosperity
"belief in materialism" doesn't seem so shallow - when your kids can be saved from dying from some preventable disease, now does it?
Humans did not create the world and, therefore, we are not responsible for bringing life or death to it. There are many such powerfully emotive arguments in favour of materialism but they ultimately intend to beguile us away from truth by promising unending life and wealth in this world. Of course, behind all this is only someone getting rich. It is possible to live a long and healthy life within nature... the modern industrial world is unnecessary for our existence. The world was not made in a factory - nobody paid for it.
Heh, if believing that makes you happy then go right on believing it. There are huge amounts of undeveloped land in Alaska, you could move there and not rely on anything Have fun
No, but most of us aspire to something quite a bit more pleasant than mere "existence." In the pre-industrial civilized world the average life span was around 30. A very high percentage of the population didn't survive childhood. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies and malnutrition in general were rampant. People lived for years with painful illnesses until they finally died in agony. Women routinely died in childbirth. The sight of a truly old woman with a wrinkled face, thinning hair, and no teeth was so unfamiliar that it gave rise to the legend of witches. Thanks but I'll happily take what I've got.
