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

We don't know why Malawi is poor

newsletter.deenamousa.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 147 posts

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#71

Post by alephnerd »

edbaskerville wrote: post #58
londons_explore wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Foreign aid is rarely a gift - in almost all cases it is a business transaction. It is given as a loan, or in return for some mineral rights, or for an important UN vote, or for allegiance in a war. For the loan cases, the terms are often unaffordable, effectively handing effective control of the entire country to the entity who has the other end of the loan - it is the modern empire-by-debt.

The Rwanda case cannot be told without Paul Kagame, one of the rare authoritarians who is also a real nation-builder, analogous to Park Chung Hee (South Korea, 1960s-1970s). He locks up his opponents but also has leveraged aid to really help socioeconomic conditions. E.g., the very close and productive collaboration with Partners in Health/Paul Farmer.

Kagame cannot be compared to Park Chung Hee or LKY. Park's economic policies actually helped South Korea climb up the economic value chain, though a lot of that was also due to Japanese technology transfers to Korea in the 1960s-90s.

On the other hand, Kagame's execution on economic reform has been a failure when compared against Uganda, as Uganda [0] has a significantly more complex (ie. higher value) economy than Rwanda [1] despite also suffering a severe civil war in the 1990s and dealing with the Idi Amin's kleptocratic rule in the 1980s.

[0] - https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/countries/800/export-basket

[1] - https://atlas.hks.harvard.edu/countries/646/export-basket

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#73

Post by NooneAtAll3 »

nradov wrote: post #57
amoorthy wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Immigrants to any country are a unique slice of the population because they chose to migrate for a better life. Hence immigrants in most countries tend to do well economically (sometimes after a generation). Uncertain that cultural differences are the reason for different economic outcomes you observe.

Which immigrants? A significant fraction of native Finnish citizens speak Swedish as their primary language. It used to be the same country.

why did you decide to mention Finland?

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#74

Post by abigail95 »

elmomle wrote: post #70
nearbuy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the article states, that Malawi hasn't developed much industry or exports is more of a description of poverty than an explanation. Malawi can grow coffee, but mostly doesn't. They have rare earth element deposits, but little mining. Why haven't they developed more?

Could it be that they haven't been so infected by the money bug that for now they still have a society oriented around happiness and maintaining traditional ways of life rather than economic attainment?

Would you want to live there?

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#75

Post by aaronbrethorst »

elmomle wrote: post #70
nearbuy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the article states, that Malawi hasn't developed much industry or exports is more of a description of poverty than an explanation. Malawi can grow coffee, but mostly doesn't. They have rare earth element deposits, but little mining. Why haven't they developed more?

Could it be that they haven't been so infected by the money bug that for now they still have a society oriented around happiness and maintaining traditional ways of life rather than economic attainment?

They're fourth from the bottom on the happiness index. https://mwnation.com/malawi-named-the-4th-least-happiest-cou...

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#76

Post by black6 »

> Malawi has also long been a darling of donors. Malawi’s aid per capita in 2023 was roughly 2.5x the global average.

Maybe the population doesn't feel like it needs to be productive, if they're continuing to receive such generous largesses. Isn't that the goal of UBI for developed nations? People should be able to pursue their passions and not have to worry about the necessities of life?

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#77

Post by jonathanlydall »

elmomle wrote: post #70
nearbuy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As the article states, that Malawi hasn't developed much industry or exports is more of a description of poverty than an explanation. Malawi can grow coffee, but mostly doesn't. They have rare earth element deposits, but little mining. Why haven't they developed more?

Could it be that they haven't been so infected by the money bug that for now they still have a society oriented around happiness and maintaining traditional ways of life rather than economic attainment?

I live in South Africa and my gardener happens to be Malawian, as was a gardener my parents had when I was growing up.

They’re both good people with pride in their work, but they are from poverty and have little in the way of skills except for manual labour jobs.

They came to South Africa, like so many from nearby countries, as our significantly more developed economy offers far better earning opportunity.

Not relevant to your comment, but want to also mention this creates xenophobic tension with the section of the local population which is in poverty as they feel their jobs are stolen. While there are certainly cases where people illegally employ immigrants to pay them less than locals, in cases where pay is at least equal, Zimbabweans and Malawians tend to have reputation of being more honest and hard working than the indigenous population.

We have Nigerians come here too and by contrast they tend to be super scetchy.

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#78

Post by inemesitaffia »

amoorthy wrote: post #50
rwyinuse wrote: post #11

Perhaps there are cultural reasons that explain this, such as attitudes towards work, entrepreneurship, private ownership etc? I have no idea if Rwanda and Malawi have difference there, but globally one can see clearly see the impact of culture. Just look at how well Japan did despite losing WW2 and having little natural resources, or how badly Russia has done despite its huge landmass and resources, because the poli…

Immigrants to any country are a unique slice of the population because they chose to migrate for a better life. Hence immigrants in most countries tend to do well economically (sometimes after a generation). Uncertain that cultural differences are the reason for different economic outcomes you observe.

They are usually richer too.

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#79

Post by seszett »

amoorthy wrote: post #50
rwyinuse wrote: post #11

Perhaps there are cultural reasons that explain this, such as attitudes towards work, entrepreneurship, private ownership etc? I have no idea if Rwanda and Malawi have difference there, but globally one can see clearly see the impact of culture. Just look at how well Japan did despite losing WW2 and having little natural resources, or how badly Russia has done despite its huge landmass and resources, because the poli…

Immigrants to any country are a unique slice of the population because they chose to migrate for a better life. Hence immigrants in most countries tend to do well economically (sometimes after a generation). Uncertain that cultural differences are the reason for different economic outcomes you observe.

Swedish speakers in Finland are not immigrants anymore than Dutch speakers in Belgium are, though (the Dutch speaking area also generally does better than the French speaking areas, for a variety of reasons).

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#80

Post by snypher »

NooneAtAll3 wrote: post #73
nradov wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which immigrants? A significant fraction of native Finnish citizens speak Swedish as their primary language. It used to be the same country.

why did you decide to mention Finland?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48151476
Post reply on HN