Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? • Hacker News Board

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#21

Post by tanto » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:16 AM UTC

alborzmassah wrote: post #18

Why don't countries just merge or join each other? Doesn't all the division simply create more fear and us VS them.

To put it a bit colorful: Because in the Game of Nations many people want to be King. To have many Kings you need many Kingdoms. Also Unity makes you strong and usually your enemies will do whatever they can to divide and conquer.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#22

Post by Melchizedek » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:17 AM UTC

One important factor could be differences in intelligence. https://infogalactic.com/info/IQ_and_Global_Inequality

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#23

Post by jamesmattis » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:22 AM UTC

There must be a definition of rich and poor. It should not be devised by looking at the wealth. It should be devised by looking at the living standards, education system, environment, law and order, equality, zero racism. And where people can live an anxiety/depression free life. Where there is welfare, care, love grows everyday for each other.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#24

Post by anovikov » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:22 AM UTC

mc32 wrote: post #19

Wasn't there a significant divergence in fortunes as economies transformed from resource based to value added economies? Around the turn of the XX century, many struggling economies today were on par with middling countries in Europe. Think Czech, Finland, Hungary, Polen, Japan. Brazil, Mexico, etc., were competitive with them back then, but now, the latter are seen as basket cases of mismanagement. And empire and co…

Brazil became a basket case of mismanagement only since a few years ago, that isn't something they are doomed to forever. They are already well on the way to fix that.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#25

Post by oh_sigh » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:22 AM UTC

sumedh wrote: post #7

As someone who migrated from a developing country(India) to a developed country(Australia) and observing the difference in quality of life of average citizens among the two countries, I always wonder why politicians/dictators from developing countries who can also observe these differences ever wonder that the average people in a developed country are living a good life so why not just copy what the developed country…

Path dependence, and trying to copy effects rather than causes.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#26

Post by meric » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:23 AM UTC

Why are there bigger numbers and smaller numbers?

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#27

Post by bluetomcat » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:27 AM UTC

Ahh, productivity. You'll be highly productive deforesting your lands, I'll be highly productive in selling pop-culture to the entire world. I get wood and you get obese. Deal?

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#28

Post by whb07 » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:28 AM UTC

bronz wrote: post #17

economics as a field seems to be poisoned with fuzzy thinking. this guy says that the division of korea is an experiment that shows the results of communism vs capitalism, essentially, and then concludes that the lack of a free market in NK is the reason that it is very poor. is it not relevant that north korea is currently and has been for quite some time the target of heavy sanctions by the united states and its al…

I gather you're of the belief that the economy is like a pie of fixed proportions to be divided rather than an ever changing pie which can grow bigger every year with productivity ?

I once read a wonderful thought experiment on the Mises page about a Dorothy sized storm. Imagine a tornado swept by and grabbed a large number of hard working and smart people randomly and placed them in a random town.

While people are temporarily shuffled, the brain surgeon(or some highly skilled technical person) is forced to pick up another trade like carpentry or any other less technical job in the meantime to provide and be productive in this new economy/town. The storm swept up and carried him elsewhere and so is temporarily stopping his highly skilled activity to become productive in some other one.

The same is to be said of the economy at large. People are shuffled due to many events and will never be at "full" productivity due to unforeseaable events, for example, a bad weather event. Jobs come and go. Same goes for industries. Even more so for trends.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#29

Post by amrrs » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:28 AM UTC

jamesmattis wrote: post #23

There must be a definition of rich and poor. It should not be devised by looking at the wealth. It should be devised by looking at the living standards, education system, environment, law and order, equality, zero racism. And where people can live an anxiety/depression free life. Where there is welfare, care, love grows everyday for each other.

One metric come across in these discussions is 'GNH' - Gross National Happiness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#30

Post by arkh » Thu, Sep 14, 2017, 7:29 AM UTC

sumedh wrote: post #7

As someone who migrated from a developing country(India) to a developed country(Australia) and observing the difference in quality of life of average citizens among the two countries, I always wonder why politicians/dictators from developing countries who can also observe these differences ever wonder that the average people in a developed country are living a good life so why not just copy what the developed country…

Because usually what makes a society work is not really seen. I hate bureaucracy but an iron-clad property system and a lot of check and balance to reduce corruption are needed. And this can take decades to put in place as it requires a change in people's mentality.