Why is Africa Poor?

[Southern]

@MMMark

@Southern

But still relative to the world in general it is still poor.

Substantiate this claim. Here’s an article, from 2002, to help you with that:

Today Botswana is one of Africa’s few enclaves of prosperity.

Here’s some more:

What accounts for Botswana’s sterling achievement? The easy answer would be diamonds, discovered under the desert in 1967. And diamond mining is indeed the keystone of the economy. But odd as it may seem, natural resources like diamonds, gold, or oil are often more of a curse than a blessing. Examples are chronically unstable Venezuela (oil) and the war-torn former Zaire (gold and diamonds). The better answer is that this peaceful democracy has largely stuck to free-market principles, even when its vast diamond wealth could have led it astray. Botswana keeps taxes low. It respects property rights and hasn’t nationalized any businesses. It avoids the corruption that easy money encourages, and doesn’t waste much money on grandiose air forces or white-elephant industrial projects. Indeed, Botswana is rated Africa’s freest economy by the Washington-based Cato Institute in its annual report, Economic Freedom of the World.

Back in 1966, Botswana wasn’t a model for anything. It boasted just three-and-a-half miles of paved roads and only three high schools in a country of 550,000 people. The per-capita income was $80 a year. Water was so scarce, and valuable, that the currency would later be named the pula, meaning rain.

Today Botswana is one of Africa’s few enclaves of prosperity. Per-capita income has jumped to $6,600. In a continent of weak currencies, the pula is strong, backed by one of the world’s highest per-capita reserves ($6.2 billion). Budget surpluses are the norm, and Moody’s Investors Service rates Botswana’s government bonds higher than Japan’s. Botswana’s world-class game parks are so free of poachers that they must cull their elephant herds. As a result the government is a leader in the fight to expand legal ivory trading.

Great article. I agree with everything in it. That diamonds discovered in the sixties (which accounts for “why they havenet always been rich” something that you asked in your last post) in conjunction with free market priciples has allowed it to escape the grinding poverty experienced in the rest of Africa. Notice that diamonds are part of the equation, as are free market priciples. Notice that there is more than one thing that has allowed them to prosper.

I have already substatiated my claim (links to the CIA factbook) that botswana, while wealthy when compared to africa is still poor when looking outside of africa (in particular the west, and east asia). Per Capita these regions are two to three times more wealthy.

@MMMark

@Southern

You believe that all people are the equals of all others.

@MMMark

…people are different. This is true everywhere.

So we agree! Excellent.

@MMMark

@Southern

I have never said that IQ is only reason botswana, or any other nation is rich or poor. Yet you keep asserting that I have.

@MMMark

Your explanation, as I understand it:

Negroes have lower IQs than whites, which results in lower economic performance than whites exhibit, except in the case of countries with “EASILY ACCESSIBLE” NATURAL RESOURCES. Then, the country becomes rich, even if the country lacks a minimal degree of liberty.

Wrong. As i explained in my last post. Which for some reason you did not quote here??? You must not be reading all of my posts (or only interpreting them in a way you want them to be interpreted). What you quoted here is only part of my arguement.