Why are the rich and the poor in the world increasingly unequal?

In the past two hundred years, human society has entered the fast track and has achieved magnificent development: breakthrough growth of population, explosive development of technology, global per capita income increased by 14 times, and the expected life span has doubled. And our ancestors were unimaginable at all.

In the context of the prosperity of the world, there is a huge gap in different countries and regions. Statistics a few years ago showed that the economic level of California in the United States could be worth the sixth largest economy in the world. Guangdong and Jiangsu in China were equivalent to the 13th and 14th economies of the world, surpassing Spain and Australia.

In addition to the differences in economic scale, there are great differences in various countries in terms of living standards.

In 2017, the expectations of most developers in developed countries exceeded 80 years of age, and infant mortality rates were less than 5 ‰. All citizens had power supply, and most people had Internet connections. In the least developed countries, the expected life expectancy is less than 62 years old, the infant mortality rate exceeds 60 ‰, less than 47%of people have power supply, and less than 1 ‰ can connect to the Internet.

What causes the huge inequality between different society? Why has the economic prosperity improvement in recent centuries only occur in part of the world? What is the origin of world wealth and inequality?

Professor of Brown University in the United States, Odder Geller founded the "unified growth theory" to analyze the motivation of continuous progress in human society and the root causes of inequality of wealth in different society. It is this theory that he is considered an economist who is very likely to win the Nobel Prize.

In the book "Human Journey: Origin of Fortune and Unemployment", he led us back to the history of human development since Homo sapiens out of Africa and re -interpreted the "wealth difference issues" in the world.

Geographical conditions have caused differences in farming civilization

Before the industrial revolution, livestock was the foundation for industrial cultivation in many parts of the world. In Eurasia, cattle are one of the core elements of the agricultural revolution. However, residents on the East and West Coast of Africa have not developed core technological progress and political systems like other parts of the world. The reason behind this is the lack of livestock.

So why lack of livestock, the answer is mosquito flies that spread diseases in Africa.

A fly that absorbs animals and human blood and spreads malaria breeds in a large amount of humid and heat environment in central Africa, making the death rate of livestock and humans here much higher than other regions. Many of the surviving babies also suffer from cognitive defects, forcing parents Increasing the number of children's children has weakened their ability to invest in children's human capital. Since the transformation of agriculture, its raging areas have been more backward than other areas nearby.

Agricultural development is the basis for external expansion. Unlike Africa, based on its unique geographical environment, Eurasia took the lead in completing the development of agricultural production and livestock breeding, which allowed the people of Eurasia to have a huge advantage over other mainland people. In other words, this is why European and America colonized in Europe, not the opposite ethnic invasion.

In addition to land climate resources, other geographical factors also affect economic development. Prior to the invention of transportation civilization such as railways and aircraft, near the ocean or navigable river is a key advantage to carry out trade, communication technology and obtaining marine resources. Among the 44 inland countries in the world, although there are economic prosperity in Austria and Switzerland, Examples, but most inland countries are still poor.

However, in addition to the direct impact of agricultural development and acquisition of natural resources, geography also has a profound impact on promoting competition, formation systems, and the rise of some important cultural characteristics.

The impact of geography on the social competition mechanism

The role of geographical factors on competition may explain why Europe has emerged and jumps beyond other more old civilizations to create the so -called "European miracle".

The most fertile and flat areas in China have been unified in 221 BC. In Europe, because many mountains and rivers divide the mainland and create many difficult physical obstacles to the ambitious conquerors. Therefore, the European continent has been split into many countries for a long time, and it is composed of complicated regimes and languages.

Some scholars believe that the political pattern of division has led to fierce competition among European countries, thereby promoting the development and prosperity of systems, technology, and science.

In the central centralized civilization such as China and the Ottoman Empire in the same period, the government has the power to prevent the technological and cultural development of the interests of the interests of the threatening elite. On the contrary, in Europe, the troubled inventors and entrepreneurs who encounter trouble can move to neighbors and continue to strive for their own business or technological innovation.

The source of funding support for the exploration journey of Columbus America reveals the essence of competition to promote development.

The earliest request for Columbus was that King John II of Portugal funded his adventure, but was rejected. Later, he turned to Venice and Britain to touch his luck, and finally convinced the Queen of Isabella I of Spain to receive funding.

On the contrary, the lack of competition will have a destructive effect on technological changes. A typical case is that the Ottoman Empire hinders the introduction of printing.

According to records, Ottoman Sudan issued a ban in 1485 to prohibit the use of Arabic textable printed machines in order to appease religious leaders who were worried about the loss of religious doctrine monopoly. It was not allowed to open the first Arabic text in 1727. This obstacle may lead to the inferiority rate of all the people of the Ottoman Empire until the beginning of the 18th century. Grabbing system and tolerance system

Different geographical factors such as climate and soil conditions have a profound impact on the formation of different colonies and continuing to this day.

The climate and soil in Central America and Caribbean are very suitable for planting coffee, cotton, sugar cane and tobacco. The efficient cultivation of such crops requires large plantations. Therefore, the agriculture developed by these areas in the colonial period has the characteristics of high concentration of land ownership, as well as the general implementation of plunder and exploitation systems such as slavery and forced labor, and left a profound impact on future generations.

Because even after these colonies are independent, the local elite class often uses this set of seizing systems that hinder economic growth, and continue to gain benefits from economic and political inequality.

On the contrary, climate conditions in most parts of the North American colonies are more suitable for planting grains and domesticated livestock, which is conducive to the growth of small family farm networks. Protect property rights. These systems can ensure the long -term prosperity of the economy.

Geographical factors provided feasibility of asymmetric trade in the colonial era and consolidated the seizing system. Africa and America, with abundant raw materials and land resources, have become the goal of inequality trade and stimulate the strongest system, that is, slave trade.

The income of these asymmetric trade accelerates the modern growth of colonial powers to continuous expansion, but delays the development of the development of the world. In particular, the destruction of the slave system on the economic development of Africa continues to the end of the colonial era.

Compared with the indirect impact of geography on competition and systems, geography has a deeper shape on cultural characteristics.

Geographical root of cultural characteristics

Focusing on the future and long -term mentality is one of the most important cultural characteristics of economic prosperity, affecting our attitude towards savings, education, development and adopting new technologies. Scholars believe that it is one of the basic decisive factors of the wealth level of various countries.

The origin of this cultural characteristics can also be traced back to its geographical environment.

In the Malassas era, a community had two strategies when facing land use. One was "consumer strategy". The entire land was used to collect, fish and hunt to meet daily needs. Annual food supply; another "investment strategy" is to abandon the current consumption and plant crops on this land, which requires a certain long -term sight, because it means sacrificing short -term consumption in exchange for future consumption.

Humans in areas with higher crop output in life may benefit more investment strategies, so these areas will use a larger proportion for farming.

The community of such a rich community has indeed reached a higher level of income, and has achieved a greater population reproduction in the Malassas era, which proves the correctness of this choice and strengthened the shaping of humans here to focus on the future. The concept becomes more popular under intergenerational transmission. Therefore, the ethnic groups that originated in this area often have long -term vision and forward -looking.

Cracking inequality puzzles

It should be acknowledged that the geographical differences between the world's areas and the system and culture caused by it will not completely disappear, and these factors may continue to exist in a long period of time.

The significance of recognizing the true origin of worldless wealth is that we will find that most of the time, the development policy suggestions provided by Western countries to poor countries do not play a real role. Because these suggestions only imitate policies related to the economic prosperity of developed countries on the surface, and have not considered the basic conditions of wealth, such conditions may not exist in poor countries.

No matter how efficient reforms, it is impossible to transform poverty -stricken countries into developed economies overnight, because there is a big difference between it in a long process of long -term differences.

Therefore, a truly effective strategy should focus on the basic factors behind poverty and inequality.

In recent decades, modern transportation, medical and information technology has reduced the negative impact of geographical factors on economic development, and the acceleration of technological progress has further enhanced the potential benefits of diversity on economic prosperity. If these trends cooperate with the appropriate policy, then we will be expected to solve the problem of wealth inequality from today's source.

Although history has left a long shadow, the future of various countries is not destined.

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