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We don't know why Malawi is poor

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Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#31

Post by peterfirefly »

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…

More like: Rwanda has a competent dictator (and has had the same one for 26 years, more if you consider the years where he was the strongman behind the President). A competent dictator is better than an incompetent dictator -- or even, in many ways, an incompetent democracy.

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#32

Post by vondur »

Malawi needs to drop tobacco as their main export. Tobacco is hard on the soil and requires more fertilizer and acidifies the soil. Swapping out tobacco for something like a specialty coffee would be far better (and Rwanda has done that) Bringing some hard specie with Coffee would really help and the foreign aid could help them make the transition, which would take a few years to get going.

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#34

Post by exe34 »

xandrius wrote: post #16

I think just you can get a glimpse by what they export (from Wikipedia): - Malawi: tobacco (55%), dried legumes (8.8%), sugar (6.7%), tea (5.7%), cotton (2%), peanuts, coffee, soy (2015 est.) - Rwanda: Gold, tin ores, coffee, malt extract, rare earth ores I can easily see why one has a higher GDP than the other. Very little mistery to me.

The agricultural exporters probably have a lot less heavy metal in their blood.

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#35

Post by ascorbic »

forinti wrote: post #24

The Central African Republic, which has a low population density, lots of water and arable land is also very poor. As is South Sudan. It must be very hard to trade your way out of poverty if you are landlocked in a poor continent. All the countries in Europe are well off by world standards because there's an enormous market next-door.

The question isn't "why is Malawi poor compared to European countries", it's "why is Malawi poor compared to other countries in a similar – or worse – situation"

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#36

Post by tdb7893 »

pavlov wrote: post #15

The conclusion of the article is interesting: > 'The unit of analysis for "why is X poor" may be the political coalition, not the country.' So maybe the real question here is not about the absolute poverty, but the derivative: "Why hasn't Malawi seen meaningful growth for 30 years?" — And the answer could be surprisingly related to first-world countries like Finland that also have experienced decades of stunted growt…

Is Finland doing that badly? It seems like a good place to live

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#37

Post by sb057 »

Rwanda has prospered for the past three decades while Malawi has floundered because Rwanda is run by an effective dictator engaging in developmentalist nation-building. Malawi has no equivalent power center, and certainly none with the beneficence to try and raise up their countrymen.

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#38

Post by alephnerd »

sb057 wrote: post #37

Rwanda has prospered for the past three decades while Malawi has floundered because Rwanda is run by an effective dictator engaging in developmentalist nation-building. Malawi has no equivalent power center, and certainly none with the beneficence to try and raise up their countrymen.

Rwanda also got significantly more foreign aid than Malawi [0] and other peer countries in Southern and Eastern Africa.

A lot of Rwanda's success is overstated as well as I've pointed out before [1].

A better model from an LDC perspective would probably be Uganda.

[0] - https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/DT.ODA.ODAT.GN.ZS?locat...

[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43375524

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#39

Post by mdasen »

dirasieb wrote: post #12

[flagged]

The point of the article isn't "Malawi is poor compared to Europe," but rather comparing Malawi to other countries that were similarly colonized and how other colonized countries have done a lot better than Malawi - despite often having more adversity in their post-colonial existence.

Yes, being exploited will leave you in a bad state, but it's also important to learn why other similarly colonized countries have done a lot better over the past 30 years - what are the conditions and policies that improve things

Re: We don't know why Malawi is poor

#40

Post by ViktorRay »

peterfirefly wrote: post #31
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…

More like: Rwanda has a competent dictator (and has had the same one for 26 years, more if you consider the years where he was the strongman behind the President). A competent dictator is better than an incompetent dictator -- or even, in many ways, an incompetent democracy.

Is Malawi an incompetent democracy? Based on the article it seems to have a functioning stable democracy.

Are you implying that a dictator would lead to Malawi becoming wealthy? Seems like a disturbing argument. If that’s not what you are implying then what are you implying?

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