Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

research.stlouisfed.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 110 posts

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#31

Post by smithmayowa »

I like to think that countries that are rich have figured out things about themselves that they have and are really needed by the rest of the world, and so they provide those services to the rest of the world for a price and use the proceeds from those services to develop the infrastructure and well-being of their country; for instance a very important well-being improving task is diversifying their economy, this they do to protect against unforeseen shifts in the global market.

The summary of this is that rich country figured out low hanging and easy fruits of services(for them that is, as if it was easy for others they could not hope to sell such services.) they could provide for a fortune and use those proceeds from those services to chase after high hanging fruits of services they could deliver to the world as those one's usually require intense capital.

Poor countries therefore either have not figured out services they could provide for the world or they have figured it out but are not investing the proceeds from it in the infrastructure and well-being of their country, being a Nigerian I would say most poor African countries are poor not because of the former but the later due to corruption,tribalism,e.t.c.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#32

Post by tpeo »

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #6
tpeo wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The impact of colonialism is studied under the institutionalist approach to growth theory, with the two most proeminent recent authors being Acemoglu and Robinson. The submission doesn't elaborate on it, but the literature is out there.

I'm not sure what your comment is supposed to mean. Can you explain in such a way that a non-domain expert can better interpret it?

I'm not sure what you think I suppose to mean. The economic impact of colonialism is already an active area of study. I'm just pointing out that it exists.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#34

Post by tpeo »

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…

Yes, there was. It is literally called "The Great Divergence".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Divergence

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#35

Post by wallace_f »

Economists can sometimes be the equivalent to the priests of the past--basically making justifications for the ruling class.

I was once passionate about economics and public policy... If we are to be honest about it, at some point you just realize that the world is much less nice than I imagined, and it's that way because of people's greed.

That's not to say there aren't a fair good number of decent people out there, but those people are rarely found in powerful positions; and if they are, they are still susceptible to being corrupted.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#36

Post by hasenj »

LeonigMig wrote: post #2

No mention of colonialism or imperialism here. Not the whole answer, but part.

Japan and Germany were completely devastated after WWII, on a scale we have never witnessed in our lifetimes, yet they rose out of the Ashes.

So no, it's not colonialism.

It has to be something less visible. Something that a country like Afghanistan for example severely lacks.

You might point to dictatorships, but I would point to South and North Koreas.

South Korea was ruled by a brutal dictatorship for decades, in a way not so different from Egypt today. Yet that did not stop it from developing.

Even North Korea fares a lot better than many third world countries that have little to no enmities with their neighbors. I suspect the only reason North Korea sucks is because of the pressures/blockades imposed on it by the US (mostly for historical reasons).

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#38

Post by mantas »

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.

Cultural differences and tendency for bigger cultures to push theirs onto smaller cultures.

Source: living in a country that run away from bigger brother few decades ago.

Re: Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?

#39

Post by aaronbrethorst »

tpeo wrote: post #32
aaronbrethorst wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what your comment is supposed to mean. Can you explain in such a way that a non-domain expert can better interpret it?

I'm not sure what you think I suppose to mean. The economic impact of colonialism is already an active area of study. I'm just pointing out that it exists.

    The impact of colonialism is studied
    under the institutionalist approach
    to growth theory
What is the institutionalist approach? What is growth theory?

    authors being Acemoglu and Robinson.
Who?

    The submission doesn't elaborate on it,
    but the literature is out there.
I'm not trying to be a smart-ass, but I'd like to know more after reading your comment than I did before.
Post reply on HN