Is it possible for the non-developed world to be as wealthy as the developed world?

Question

Americans, on average, enjoy more wealth than many other countries combined. Is it possible for them to one day have the same wealth or does the world lack the resources?

Answer 1

South Africa has one of only two sources of titanium. It has some beautiful beaches, and of course the richest diamond mine in the world. Diamonds are much more common than you think, but the major diamond companies keep the supply rare and the price high. Yet there is still crushing poverty in South Africa, unrest, strong racial hatred, and many other problems. This situation has improved a lot since apartheid. South Africa has a lot of physical wealth, but as a not fully developed nation it is very poor.

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth "Wealth" has come to mean an abundance of items of economic value.” You can have a lot of resources and other weath and still be a poor world.

America is wealthy too, but not as wealthy in the rare resources that South Africa has. For a value of wealth beyond just resources a very good indicator is life expentency. That includes the medical technology, the riches to pay for that technology and a lot of other factors. According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy
South Africa has one of the lowest life expentancies of the world, and the US has one of the highest (Canada, Finland and Japan beat us).

Wikipedia on wealth continues:
“Wealth is created through several means.
·Natural resources can be harvested and sold to those who want them.
·Material can be changed into something more valuable through proper application of knowledge, skill, labor and equipment.
·Better production methods also create additional wealth by allowing faster creation of wealth. “

America has a lot more of the last two than South Africa, so America is one of the better off countries. Can South Africa reach Amerian wealth? I doubt it; we have a huge technological advantage, a huge military advantage, a more homgenious populace (we aren’t trying to kill each other off in wholesale lots), and a lot more advantages. South Africa had its civil war, but America had a lot more wars. The French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the US Civil War, yet they didn’t let that hold their development behind.

Look at Japan; they have a higher life expentency than the US and in many areas a more advanced technology. Japan is less than half the size of South Africa, but is a far wealther nation, and they will remain so for the same reasons that America has. Japan itself has almost no resources; as far as Japan was concerned WWII was fought solely to gain control of resources. Even if South Africa could overcome the problems of massive racial unrest and hatred, its crushing poverty, the problem of malaria, and AIDS; I don’t think that they could match our technology or our wealth in so many other areas.

South Africa was founded by the Dutch East India company on April 6 1652 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa). The pilgrims came to America in 1620, yet look at the differences in the development of the two nations. The two countries started western development around the same time and were considered very important to their founding nations. South Africa was the perfect stop for ships trying to get to the riches of the orient. They also had diamonds lying on the beach. Yet South Africa never matched the development of the United States.

During the colonization of South Africa and the Americas Japan was still locked in a fuedal period of waring states until Commodore Perry forced it open to trade with the west in 1852 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Perry_%28naval_officer%29).
Japan came from behind to rise to a great nation. In WWII they almost beat the US on the opening days of the war. If the carriers had been in Pearl Harbor, and if the Japanese had continued with the planned third wave then the US might have lost the war. Japan came from 200 years behind South Africa and rose to a positon higher than South Africa probably will ever see, yet Japan has almost no resources or native wealth, and less than half the land area.

Now look at the Soviet Union; Russia was founded before the United States, they had more land, just as many people, and a pretty close technological development when they started. The Soviet Union tried to keep up with the West, and thanks to their stronger Intelligence Agency, they did a good job of fooling the world, but finally the whole system collapsed, and the world found out that the Soviet Union was a paper tiger. Today they are not as rich as the US, not as Technologically developed as Japan, and never suffered the racial wars or the AIDS epidemic that has ravaged South Africa. Yet on the world stage modern Russia is behind Japan and closer to South Africa’s wealth than any other nation. Russia is the only other source of titanium, they have rich deposits of oil, lots of untapped lands and other natural sources of wealth. One day Russia could surpass the US, if they could ever get their economy going. South Africa will never see that day.

It takes a lot more than physical wealth to make a great nation. It takes a people with the drive to do it, a tolerant government that will promote it, and a personal belief in success. A drive that the nation of South Africa lacks.

Answer 2

The short answer to your question is no, they will never, or not for the foreseeable future, attain the same wealth as American citizens have the opportunity to. Undeveloped countries simply lack the land mass, population, resources, trade potential, and tax revenues to do so.

However, there are initiatives underway, mostly through the World Bank, to pump money into the development of industry in these countries to establish viable economies. The hope is that building factories will employ the people, produce goods that can be both consumed domestically and exported, and give their governments a tax base. Not only that, but once one factory is established, the idea is that additional manufacturing will develop until the labor capital of the country is exhausted. When everything is up and running, ideally, the citizenry will enjoy wages that, while not equal in dollar amount to the US, will provide them a very good living according to the countries cost of living.

Hopefully, that answered your question.

Answer 3

Yes it's possible. After World War II, Europe and Japan were poor. Korea and Taiwan were poor. More recently, Ireland and Spain were basket cases. Now people in those countries live better than our parents did.

There are many factors in transforming from poverty to wealth. No country has the same experience. But there are sufficient resources. The legislative environment, work ethic, natural resources, intolerance for corruption, are some of the factors.

Answer 4

the rich get lazy - the poor get tough and lean and keen - the rich get poor - the poor get rich

the third world is coming up fast - from 20% of world wealth in 1960 to 80% in 2050

[sprout and weaver, international distribution of income 1960-1987, kyklos, v45, 1992, p238-253]

the richer the country, the more it costs to defend it, so the faster its wealth gets used up - plunderers get plundered, as happened to every past empire

the richer the empire, the more attractive to attack or steal from or take over [eg, the sicilians taking over america - mafia five times the size of the five biggest corporations together, owning and controlling the govt]

the more an empire plunders, the poorer it makes other countries, and thus the more keen the other countries are to invade, and thus the higher the defense costs

empires are like crests on the sea - soon down

better is justice, equal pay for equal work, no slavery, no plundering, no poor coming up, no rich going down, no fighting, no escalation of war to extinction soon, no rough sea for anyone, no dark ages following fall of empires

the writing is on the wall for america - 7 of the top 10 banks have moved to japan - china coming up fast - defense costs throwing america into debt, the military have control - when the military take over the guiding of an empire, the end is near

what is it like living in the third world? - just stay in america, you will soon find out

Answer 5

if the non-developed countries had wealth, they would become developed (DUH!).

Is it just luck that some countries in afrika dont even have what is necessary for survival, but still have the richer mines of diamonds et cetera? What does the USA have in terms of resources? Some petrolium, owned by texaco and thats all. Did you ever ask yourself where did the US find all your wealth??

Answer 6

you're somewhat short on data. i do not understand many white human beings that make $236,500. per chance a million/4 that in the experience that they are doing properly. popular, you do have a good question. i will oversimplify. I blame faith, and the non secular correct. I blame the extremely wealthy, and their useful competition to regulate exertions. faith has crippled our colleges structures, forcing the coaching of human beings thoughts. faith has effectively prohibited the coaching of generic technological understanding and heritage. faith has prevented lots of the analyze into cloning, stem cells and different issues that ought to have led to giant medical breakthroughs, consisting of retarding growing older! even as the "a million%" and their lackeys in authorities, declared conflict on prepared exertions, they managed to emasculate the purely voice that the operating class had. on account that union club as fallen to record low, so has the employment factor and wages of the yankee worker. a modern US census bureau statistic reported that one 0.5 of our inhabitants replaced into residing at or less than the poverty factor. i assume that our terrible "for income" medical device, has extra to the above woes in a wide area.

Answer 7

ABSOLOUTELY THEY REST OF THE WORLD MERELY NEEDS TO ENJOY THE FRUITS THAT COME WITH LVING IN A FREE COUNTRY WHERE THEY CAN REAP THE REWARDS OF THEIR OWN LABOR RATHER THAN CONTRIBUTE MINDLESSLY TO DICTATORS AND GOVERNMENTS WHO ONLY SEEK TO EXPLOIT THE MASSES FOR THEIR OWN GAIN

Answer 8

**** ya its possible