Developing Countries Competing with Developed Countries Essay

Why is it so difficult for the poorest societies to get to a foothold on the development ladder?

Global communications, space exploration, and international events are just some of the things that formed the interconnected web between nations and sped up globalization. However, as much as we like to think that the world is making progress, there is still the undeniable fact that some countries citizens are much better off and enjoy a higher standard of living than compared to the people of other nations. Ever since the era of globalization began, the gap between the First and Third World is becoming bigger and bigger.

Global wealth is largely found in the south, yet the north is the richest and developed. In this respect, there must be another explanation of this equation. Slave trade, colonialism, and neocolonialism can best explain this. Moreover, bad governance and poor investment in education and research might explain why the north is more developed. The implications for our understanding of why some countries in the world today are rich and some are poor is important in determining how best we understand the history of the world, as well as the factors that contributed to this pattern (Diamond). The history of the world is important in establishing the factors that led to the differences in the distribution of wealth on the globe.

The United States today is known as an industrialized nation. This means that we have a high standard of living. However, there are many countries that do not have a high standard of living and they are called developing nations. Many things could keep them from becoming a developed nation such as no international trade, lack of factories, and a lack of tariffs.

While the concept of a developed North and developing South rings some truth since most of the northern countries on the map fall into higher rankings in terms of human development, the southern countries are not all developing. According to the map, Australia and some portions of South America and Asia are closer to developed than developing. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to describe the world as a developed North and developing South.

I don’t necessarily believe these economic classifications are completely accurate due to the fact that economic success is reliant on several factors which are often out of the control of the working class population. These classifications aim to brand countries within specific labels which do not reflect a nation's economic success. For example, Australia would be classified as a South nation however they are not in poverty, nor are they less developed despite being located in the east. If anything, the label of North is a much better fit, Australia’s geographic region contradicts this though. Additionally, I feel that these labels are very black and white orientated, which neglects the complications and complexity of a country’s economy.

Both developing and developed nations were part of the set. The developed nations consisted of 47% of the total set. We started with 43 nations and dropped a few countries later from the analysis because of missing data.

Throughout the world countries are often characterized as being developed or developing. Two countries that are examples of being developed and developing are the United States and India. This classification of countries is often based on their economic status. Examples of economic categories that differentiate which countries are developed and developing are unemployment levels, living conditions, and economic growth. Despite countries being developed and developing, they all are always trying to improve their economic status. Comparing India and the United States, one can gain a better understanding of the differences of developed and developing countries.

The Least Developed Country (LDC) I picked out is Uganda. Uganda is a country is East Africa, it comes under a category of one of the least developed countries because it has a per capita income of under US170$, it is one the poorest countries in the world. The population in Uganda is broadly poor, it is generally difficult for Ugandan families to spend a dollar and it is difficult to take care of their essential needs. 80% of the Ugandans work in agriculture, their main crops cultivated are cotton, corn, tea and coffee. Most of the production in the country is by farmer’s cooperatives, as the environment provides good grazing land for cattle, sheep and goats. Uganda escaped a widespread famine in the late 1970’s and 1980’s because many people including the woman residents resorted to the subsistence cultivation. The life expectancy for women is 58 years while in the US it is 81 years of age- that is a 23 year

Creating nations themselves accentuate this point, however, in the rich world, it is frequently overlooked. So too is the way that money-related guide and the further opening of well-off nations' business sectors are devices with just a constrained capacity to trigger development, particularly in the poorest nations. As we learned in this class, poor countries are abundant in cheap labor and natural resources. The financial foreign aid helps countries to invest opening markets to important exports. For instance, some financial aid promotes microcredit which is a very small loan to some particular individuals in poor countries to stimulate economic development, so that they can start small businesses.

Throughout the years, the United States of America has endured a very strong economy. Although there have been many obstacles of hindrance such as trade deficits, wars, hostile governments and embargo’s, the economic status of the United States still continues to prevail. Just to name a few, the economy of this country survives on simple commodities such as pork, oranges, precious metals and the productive efforts of its citizens. In this paper, I will not only introduce and discuss the logistics of both the United States and the United Kingdom; I will discuss its key economic obstacles and its economic well being.

The Bottom Billion by Paul Collier discusses why the poorest countries are failing and then offers some insights and solutions to the problem. He says the four major problems in developing nations are: conflict, natural resources, bad neighbors, and bad governments. The conflicts are usually civil wars which have huge costs and the situation just becomes worse the longer the conflicts drag on. Collier states that countries rich in natural resources are often worse off than countries that are not, he attributes this problem to several different factors. One of the factors is that the resources open the possibility for conflict over the resources. Another factor is that if a country strictly focuses it’s on a specific natural resource then the other resources and industries might get forgotten and lose value. Being landlocked with bad neighbors can also be a large problem because it makes it almost impossible to be a part of world trade, so these landlocked countries have to depend on their neighbors for most of the trade and materials. A bad government can also be very destructive to a country’s economy, if they create unreasonable and restrictive policies. The smaller countries are also at a disadvantage because it is hard for them to get any investors, because the investors would much rather invest in well-known countries like India or China. After Collier stated all the problems he also offered up some possible solutions. He believed that aid agencies should concentrate

Developing nations are filled with hope and aspirations of one day becoming a wealthy, dominating, and influential country. These nations can sometimes be unsafe, difficult to live in, and hard for workers to earn good compensation for their labor. On the other hand, living in a developed nation has many upsides. Developed nations are wealthy, which in turn have good infrastructure, labor and worker laws, and have less crime.

The countries that have experienced high and rising levels of poverty are more often than not, the developing countries that have been marginalised from the process of globalization. Think of North Korea or many countries in Africa. Such countries have insufficient levels of international trade and investment -- not too much. Whether poor countries are poor because they do not trade enough or because poverty stricken countries are prevented from engaging in the global economy, less globalization is generally associated with less development. Ernesto Zedillo, the former president of Mexico seems to have understood the power of globalization when he said, "In every case where a poor nation has significantly overcome its poverty, this has been achieved while engaging in production for export markets and opening itself to the influx of foreign goods, investment and technology -- that is, by participating in globalization."

• Primary commodities have fallen in price, or stayed steady, while commodities they need has increased, e.g. oil