Economics, It's What's for Breakfast

Buckethead Buckethead

A couple links to Marginal Revolution: first, an exceedingly brief post, which I will quote in full:

In 1960 Taiwan was poorer than the Congo, here is the source.

Second, some thoughts on the just released Economic Report of the President.

The second post gives us some useful information on the whole economy thingy. Read it and we'll talk. But what really snagged my attention was the first one. I remember from when I actually read books and went to school; that at one time, as decolonialization was getting into full swing, everyone thought that Africa was the next best thing, soon to take advantage of all that brilliant and useful socialism and make the Dark Continent into the worker's paradise. Asia, on the other hand, was believed destined for misery and poverty.

Well, that sure happened. And the key, really, is this:

The Index of Economic Freedom

Posted by Buckethead Buckethead on   |   § 4

§ 4 Comments

1

Knowing what I know about Asian economic development, post-WWII, I'd say that having a cultural basis for a centralized authority making policy is a big reason for Asia making large economic strides. I'm not saying that Asians are culturally superior (though I'm sure that I think and express it subconsciously all the time, Full disclosure: I'm Asian-American, yes, I prefer the hyphen.). But considering how arbitrary nation states were drawn up in Africa, 'a cut here-a slice there', there wasn't necessarily a cohesive state enterprise to drive forth economic development in Africa, except maybe in Morocco and Tunisia. (being Kingdoms of sorts and overlooking the black market in hashish, they are relatively freer according to that Heritage Foundation link). Look at Nigeria. They should dominate the geo-politics of Africa because of their oil reserves, but they didn't really get their shit together as a country until recently. Tribalism is rampant, and when you look at the most economically developed Asian countries, for the most part they're pretty homogenous and have had a literate class for centuries.

I've read a few 5-year economic plans put out by Ministries of Finance/Economics in Japan, Korea Taiwan & Singapore from the 60's and 70's. It makes interesting reading of a specific kind. The plans are master strategies to enter industries where these countries had nothing and aimed to become global players. It's pretty freakin' amazing if you consider that my both my parents grew up on farms and within one generation there has been rapid urbanization and development. Going from textiles to semiconductors to cloning research is a testament to their ability to mobilize and organize and stick to a coherent strategy. It's all been pretty deliberate with the US in their gunsights.

Granted, I'm an Asia specialist when it comes to development work. I can't offer much more insight about Africa. If they have universal health care, I'd say in some respects they are doing better than we are. (here we go! Don't even get me started on AIDS.)

Of course, I'll shoot down my own arguments and say at the time that development was happening, there was political unrest in Korea with a military overthrow of the government, so make whatever you will of my underinformed, totally biased ramblings.

Mapgirl Mapgirl

2

Tribalism and disorganization are directly related, imho, to the freedom index. The constant stuggles in African countries for power, all within a context of marxist economics espoused by what passed for an intelligentsia, led to low freedom indices. There are a variety of reasons why one part of the world had high ratings, the other low - but the fact of those ratings has led inexorably to the vast difference in wealth per capita in the two regions.

Hong Kong and Singapore are in the top ten; South Korea and Malaysia are over $10,000 which puts them in the first world. The vast majority of African nations are under $1500, and the bottom of the rankings reads like a list of African nations.

It's just interesting that the circa 1960 CW on Africa was so tragically wrong, and exactly the opposite for East Asia.

Buckethead Buckethead

[ You're too late, comments are closed ]