The answer to many of Africa's problem is to initiate a single monetary unit. By thus they increase their GDP and equate balance of trade. Why they haven't done this is beyond me. This continent has over 600 languages and 500 tribes, it needs to step out from its achaic cultural principle and adopt a sense of unity to move forward. A single monetary system will also increase its purchasing power and enable it to compete on the world stage. Some of these states have a GDP lower than the state of Kentucky, one of the poorest state in America. The introduction of loans and technology isn't going to help any because many of the states are riddled with poverty, illiteracy and opression, the continent is too far back in terms of modernization and freedom, it needs a form of leverage. I mean where are the initiatives?
it would help alot... but the white man keeps selling them weapons.. and whispers in their ears.... thats the problem.. if i was black... id go there and take over like SHAKA ZULU. HE HAD BALLS... -MT
How? The same way it helps the Europe. In fact it will help Africa a great deal more because it will cause a psychological sense of unity in such a diverse socio-political environment. Okay for the non economical incline let me elaborate. We know third world nations trail in terms of infrastructure and enterprise. We also know that to move forward in third world nations you need to follow the advanced nations, which means buying ideas and materials. However when you make less than a dollar a day and your currency is 100 times under valued then importing developed enterprise in near impossible. Loans are good but it further hyper inflates currency and economy for two reasons. One, most of the loans are not implemented properly due to corruption, secondly what good is it establishing a multi-million dollar private enterprise when the consumer earns a dollar a day. So you see loans are just adding ether to the fire that burns that continent, it’s simply too far back morally and ideologically. What’s needed is to increase the purchasing power of the society and hence increasing the GDP per individual, which would increase the monetary value and overall standard of living. On the contrary African nations don’t have good GDPs and are even heavily in debt so the best way to legally inflate their GDP is to combine them and introduce a single monetary system. This way every African can be able to buy an ipod, food, and air conditioning. I also advocate a single constitution for the African Unification to arrest many of the coagulated monopoly and centralization of power, because a single African leader is better than fifty different inept ones. If you still don’t get my paragraph let me put it this way. Two boys sharing a load for 2 miles are better off than one boy walking alone for 20 miles.
Lets say each state in the U.S had its independence, surely the poorer states such as Kentucky would not be too happy. But its the unity of the United states that gives it its power, resources, and its enormous GDP. And every single person in that gerographic region benefits from this. This shit is a no brainer!
No. After 45-70 years of communism the people of the USSR and their satellites are just as disunited as they ever were. The USSR itself disintegrated, Yugoslavia disintegrated, even placid Czechoslovakia split in half without even any shooting. What Africa needs is not more unity but some way to erase the wounds of colonialism. Tribes were split in two or three pieces, then forced to form a "nation" with pieces of other tribes that they had nothing in common with. It was an attempt to take them from the Neolithic Era directly into the Industrial Age without the intervening six thousand years of cultural and technological development. A single currency isn't even in the universe of choices of what those poor people need most. They need to be given their history back. They've been colonized by the children of Mesopotamia since Roman times, if not before.
Thats really not going to solve the issue now but its a factor. Exactly how do you even hand someone their history back, by word of mouth or by uniting and moving forward? If they are to move forward the only way is to unite, even Europe with all their history are united today. They are just too poor to even buy or have a history guys. They need reform and unity not loans and guns.
I'm sorry, may be i'm a little bit slow, but how in Economics does a single monetary unit increase the purchasing power,the GDP AND equate the current trade account? would you elaborate a little on the mechanism? I mean you must some idea how that can happen right? thank you.
You understand that for any country to compete in the global market you have to adjust your currency accordingly right? Now consider that many Africans earn less than a dollar a day, obviosuly there is no way for many Africans to make sustancial investments with that kind of money that would significantly improve their GDP( in dollars) and Budget deficit. The main reason why Europe unified their currency was to compete with the Americans and that is working well for them, read about the Euro, it will serve as a good paradigm. If I make one dollar a week there is no way I can contribute to the global economy in any way, and to have potential in a global economy is the only way out of debt and poverty. When China was Isolated from the world economy with their Iron Rice bowl policy and so forth their economy suffered severely. Hence if all Africans unite as one single country, depending on their collective deficit and economic plans they can establish a potent single currency and importing petty goods such as agriculture would not cost the continent an arm and a leg anymore, thereby leaving room for investments and progression. How many small businesses do you know want to invest in an African nation whose currency is 400 to 1 dollar and its people make about 4 dollars a week? Some of the petty imports are subsidized but obviously not enough and Africa needs to stop dependency by inviting investment and at least trying to compete in the world stage. Like they say small businesses arethe back bone of any good economy.
Economic strength comes from producing someone saleable, not just having a currency with a different name. The Japanese Yen is worth far less than a dollar, but don't they have a fairly strong economy?
There is a benign difference between poor and underdeveloped countries. Poor is having no resources and underdeveloped is misusing resources. Japans economy is far more advanced than any African nation and their undervalued currency is no face value of the situation of their economy. Will African nations evern learn to use their resources effectively? There are too many socio-political factors to make this possible, and the little resources many African nations have are being exploited constantly. Rich and poor are relative situations and third world nations are said to be poor only when compared to developed nations.To become a developed nation you have to at the very least produce, export, amd import developed goods and services. To do this you have to have a well educated and productive population, having a leverage like a potent currency would help as well. However even with such leverage many African nations are inept at using these resources effetcively by expanding their economy. Egypt is a good example of this flaw, for eight years they have failed to do something about their stagnating unemployment despite their strong currency.However if all of Africa adopts a single currency some countries will benefit greatly and this spots of success will hopefully propagate some better living standards continent wide. A strong currency will also curb foreign exploits and encourage indeginous desire for local goods and service. On a continent with over 9000 different languages and plagued with curruption it desperately needs a universal sense of unity of some sort. The issue here is effective allocation of resources and a favorable currency, either one alone is not achievable by a single African state for a long time. But by unity its at least possible to hold a potent currency even if one country is facing another political unrest or a military coup, which by the way sets these nations back another ten years whenever one happens. Consider The four hunter scenario 2 good hunters and 2 bad hunters The two good hunters catch 10 Quails per hunt(developed countries) The two bad hunters catch 3 quails per hunt(undeveloped countries) Here are the possible options for the two bad hunters 1 Ask for quails from the two good hunters 2 Work harder 3 Learn the techniques of the two good hunters The best option here is option 3 since it will also help the inept hunters over a longer period of time. The Leverage here is a better hunting technique, leverage is the fastest and best means of achieving anything. If Africas adopt a single monetary system as their leverage they can *encourage foreign investment, *encourage free-trade between African states, *encourage indeginous businesses and services *Afford modern technology *encourage specialization. This way African states specialized in Agriculture can afford to stay in Agriculture *Eradicate centralized power. By introducing a single currency you negate pockets of unecessary micro curruption, a unified economy and central bank magnifies any possible curruption. The main focus here is a single monetary system, not necessarily weak or strong, though its most likely going to be strong. Strong increases purchasing power and entices foreign investment.
Mexico even has a stronger currency than Japan but Japan's economy is far more advanced than mexico's, so it is independent of a potent or weak currency. As long as you make it they will buy it, so the issue here is procudtivity not neccessarily something seable. A low GDP is almost directly proportional to a weak currency(depending on debt) but a high GDP is not a function of currency. Africa is so crippled that its impossible for one state to produce effectively over a long period of time due to the stagnation of its surrounding states, unless it unifies its GDP can there be any form of cooperative development. Maybe when Africa is one single state will it then be seleable as you said. Remember when you are in school its was harder to build a GPA than it was to loose it, thats the role of currency-GPA, which by the way does not neccesarily mean you are smart or stupid. Essentially the whole world has one single currency(one single market), only undervalued and overvalued in certain places. The reason for the difference is because of productivity, which not coincidentally is synonymous to unity. Like any market you need a form of leverage if you are not a major player or market mover otherwise the road is longer and further.
