Why are rich countries rich and poor countries poor?

[merchantofzeny]

Can you send me your bitcoin? I think I am poor in this single global community 

On a serious note, globalization doesnt mean equality, quite the opposite. When people stuck in 13th century compete against people from 21st century, who will that go down, buddy? Not to even mention genetic differences between various tribes and cultures. But they do compete.

Africans outbreed people from any other continent, but are unable to compete economically.

Muslims outbreed seculars, yet will hate them for being rich even without knowing Allah.

Globalization did not bring peace like Fukuyama promised, rather it highlighted the many differences between human beings in all over the world.

I should post my address everywhere and ask these first worlders to go help me with a small donation of a few bitcoins. 

Fukuyuma, haven't read anything from him but he seems quite a Polyanna from a few reviews I saw. Even Huntington criticized him in his own book. I believe the latter's Clash of Civilization came out a year after The End of History.

With the way things are happening, it seems Huntington got the clearer picture.

[hawthelegend]

You know what op, this is a serious topic. And a good one. This is something that is really asked rarely about, that link you provided can really help a lot of people understand more about this issue. plus all the answers that our fellow bitcoiners provide, this really is a worthy topic to be started in a community like this. Now in my opinion, i really think that the system in every country is really vital to how or why it is like that and will be in the future, you see, the leader and the rules or laws in every country and the strictness really is the one that can make a huge difference.
That's just for me though..

[Vikash kumar]

On the basis development in education & technology any country is considered as poor or rich country. The second cause of poor of a country is their popullation .if a country have denser population but annual income is not considerable then this is the most important cause of blackness of that particular country.To  development of any country it is necessary that their annual income of per person should be increased and improve their education and technology.

[EthBooksPro]

Bad politics and greed among some leaders is one of the reasons why some countries are poor though they have enough manpower and resources. After years of oppression by colonialists, African countries for example should have strived to be the best but they still lag behind, almost half a century after most of them gained independence.

In 1962, South Korea and Kenya were at the same level. Today, the former is a 1st world country leading in technology, but the latter is currently a 3rd world country with unemployment at 40%, food insecure and one of the most corrupt in the world according to Transparency International.

[Okurkabinladin]

Bad politics and greed among some leaders is one of the reasons why some countries are poor though they have enough manpower and resources. After years of oppression by colonialists, African countries for example should have strived to be the best but they still lag behind, almost half a century after most of them gained independence.

In 1962, South Korea and Kenya were at the same level. Today, the former is a 1st world country leading in technology, but the latter is currently a 3rd world country with unemployment at 40%, food insecure and one of the most corrupt in the world according to Transparency International.

Good point. You can see, that Chinese for example invested vast sums of their wealth into public education system. Unlike Africa.

According to Zhang Ping, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, China's GDP is likely to surpass 50 trillion yuan ($8.03 trillion) in 2012, while a budget report by the Ministry of Finance in March last year showed that the central government had decided to allocate nearly 2.2 trillion yuan for education in 2012.

An outline for China's educational reform and development promulgated in 1993 said that national educational expenditures as a share of GDP should be increased gradually to 4 percent by the end of the 20th century. In 1993 education expenditures were only 2.77 percent of GDP and had only reached 2.79 percent by 1999.

Government spending on education last year was almost 25 times higher than it was in 1993 and it had almost quadruple since 2006.

[Sithara007]

Are they really that desperate for cash that everything rests on the IPO? Well, regardless, they can only keep pushing back the inevitable for so long. Just like when the dues finally catch up when you keep on borrowing money (Hello Puerto Rico), spending earnings irresponsibly will catch up when you run out of money.

What would be KSA without oil? Dubai at least have tourism to fall back on, can you imagine Western women going on a beach in KSA without having to wear a burkini? Even the "build it and they will come" policy don't seem to work. KSA has built large malls but so far tourists are not flocking there, like they would go to Dubai to shop during vacations.

They recently reduced the taxes on Aramco. They hope that after this, they can sell the company for around $2 trillion (up from the previous valuation of around $300 to $500 billion by western experts). It is not urgent. Their sovereign wealth funds are still not completely depleted. Some $470 billion worth of assets are still there in those funds.

[matuson]

Even if they do not take taxes generally people will not go to Arab countries. This is not only dangerous but just such a trip will not bring any pleasure. Soon they face problems because the oil is not needed, and most of them have nothing to offer.

[Naughty Princess]

I do believed that that the country who is rich are those who are not greed or corrupt in the government. Because once there is a corrupt officials inside the government expect that there is a disadvantage to be happen in the end, and the result the country will suffer, but once the officials are not greed or corrupt expect, that nation will be progress for sure in the near future.

I agree with this. What makes the country poor are the people within the government that only think about themselves to be rich.

[darkangel]

I think a country that belongs to a poor country is caused by a high rate of corruption in that country. I'm sure corruption exists in every country, but not in large numbers. My country is a poor country and that is because of the huge amount of corruption. State finances are so unstable.

A rich or poor country depends on many factors: leadership, intellectuals, the environment, mineral resources, tourism, population density... When the leadership is integrity No abuse, no corruption also contribute to push up. How to make the country free from corruption?

[zander09]

I do believed that that the country who is rich are those who are not greed or corrupt in the government. Because once there is a corrupt officials inside the government expect that there is a disadvantage to be happen in the end, and the result the country will suffer, but once the officials are not greed or corrupt expect, that nation will be progress for sure in the near future.

I agree with this. What makes the country poor are the people within the government that only think about themselves to be rich.

It maybe because of the economy, or depending on the government, if the government is corrupt really harder countries suffer. But if someone is interested in the people and is important to him and also if they are concerned ,they can lift a future of a poor country .

[Sithara007]

Even if they do not take taxes generally people will not go to Arab countries. This is not only dangerous but just such a trip will not bring any pleasure. Soon they face problems because the oil is not needed, and most of them have nothing to offer.

Tourists may still visit countries such as the United Arab Emirates. Electronics and gold are extremely cheap there. And you will get quality products as well. And regarding jobs, the salaries may not be as high as those in the US/EU. But they are much higher than the average South Asian wages.

[Shamie1002]

I think when it comes to being a poor country it is because of wrong ruler, corrupt and greedy government( officials ), and abusive people. With this kind of people, country will never have the chance to be called as developing one.
And when it come to the rich countries, because they are having a wise ruler (wide perspective), and cooperative and independent people. They already think about the future, for their production thats why they discipline themselves unlike poor countries that people wait for financial help for their needs.

[mothergodness]

I believe that much depends on the government of the country and people live in corrupt countries poorly. Although if you look really, then in any country there are poor people.

[Sithara007]

I think when it comes to being a poor country it is because of wrong ruler, corrupt and greedy government( officials ), and abusive people. With this kind of people, country will never have the chance to be called as developing one.

There can be many reasons such as wrong rulers and corruption. But unless the people are smart enough, no country can achieve progress. Look at India. A large majority of the people still vote for parties which ponder to their caste and religion. They will vote for a party which is biased towards their religion, rather than voting for the party which can bring development.

[deejhay]

their citizen is the reason, the government, corruption disaster are just factors i think.
if every one of its citizen think of making their lives better and working for it, then the country would do better.

[cipherer]

Most rich countries use assets of poor countries, the have done that for several centuries.

[sameer dadarwal]

Devlopment of technology is the main reason behind the unfair devlopment of the world. The rich countries has developed their technology to utilise their resources but poor countries  are not capable to utilise them due to lack of technology

[joebrook]

Most rich countries use assets of poor countries, the have done that for several centuries.

And the leaders of the poor countries allow these western foreign countries to do that. If the countries producing these resources use them rather than let other countries exploit them, they would be rich as well.

[dondexter]

Personally, I think it has to do with their governments and how competent are their economic policies. The better their economic policies, the better the country does.

[Sithara007]

Most rich countries use assets of poor countries, the have done that for several centuries.

And the leaders of the poor countries allow these western foreign countries to do that. If the countries producing these resources use them rather than let other countries exploit them, they would be rich as well.

In most of the cases, the poor countries don't have the technology to extract their natural resources. Therefore they come up with some sort of deals with countries such as China and the United States to exploit these resources. Such deals are mutually beneficial, and definitely better than the resources sitting idle, without anyone exploiting them.