News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by sumedh on Thursday September 14, 2017 @02:46AM (#15245489)
As someone who migrated from a developing country(India) to a developed country(Australia) and observing the difference in quality of life of average citizens among the two countries, I always wonder why politicians/dictators from developing countries who can also observe these differences ever wonder that the average people in a developed country are living a good life so why not just copy what the developed country is doing and apply the similar policies back home to improve the lives of their own citizens.
Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by arkh on Thursday September 14, 2017 @03:29AM (#15245659)
Because usually what makes a society work is not really seen. I hate bureaucracy but an iron-clad property system and a lot of check and balance to reduce corruption are needed. And this can take decades to put in place as it requires a change in people's mentality.
Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by ianai on Thursday September 14, 2017 @03:48AM (#15245754)
What makes society work is very visible - society. The individuals that comprise the society. When they have resources (money, freedom, property ownership, etc) the society will grow. Also, population growth. If there are more people around then there will be more sold and thus produced.
Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by emrahayanoglu on Thursday September 14, 2017 @02:56AM (#15245528)
Because controlling people, who are struggling in their life, are much easier by dictators. Even with religious activities, dictators can make citizens pray for him. if politicians allow you to have lots of chances, then you'll start criticizing and want more. More improvement on life conditions gives you less control on citizens.

I'm Turkish living in Switzerland, I can say that it is the same shit in every developing country and i can ensure you they won't be developed due to the facts that i mentioned above. We need really high numbers of citizens to break the borders.

Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by donquichotte on Thursday September 14, 2017 @03:15AM (#15245592)
Also, corruption. This is anectotal, but in the countries I've visisted, which include a hand full of ex Soviet republics, the median quality of life seemed to be negatively correlated with the amount of corruption.
Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by egeozcan on Thursday September 14, 2017 @03:46AM (#15245745)
I'm also Turkish, and believe me, when you have a dictator with his troll army, sucking the life out of the whole country, you'll wish you had the typical corrupt but manageable government from the 90s. The types we have these times would stand next to a kilometer-long list documenting their illegal business and say "we did what needs to be done for our great country" and everyone would cheer while you make escape plans. Hi from Germany(the risk of being falsely labeled as a teenager won't stop me: I<3🇩🇪).
Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by mamon on Thursday September 14, 2017 @03:56AM (#15245803)
Which means that usual ways of dealing with dicators, i.e. econimic sanctions are counterproductive. They make average people poorer, and then less likely to revolt against their dictator.

Taking communist Poland as an example, people start revolution not when things are worst for them economically, but, paradoxically, when things start getting better, but not fast enough.

Polish people revolted against communists in 1980, which was at the end of the decade of economic growth, fueled by money that Edward Gierek borrowed from western banks.

Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by danielam on Thursday September 14, 2017 @05:12PM (#15252557)
Something similar happened w.r.t. the French revolution.
Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by shubhamjain on Thursday September 14, 2017 @04:04AM (#15245842)
This is a naive simplification. Why doesn't Infosys just copy Google and 10x its market cap? Big countries, like big companies, acquire a great deal of friction to get anything moving and institutions that make up the Goliath start getting riddled with corruption and mediocrity.

A policy change in itself can't change anything, unless, the change trickle down to the lowest level. And that rarely happens, because every level in the hierarchy has its own holes, inefficiencies, and corrupt practices.

Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by quickthrower2 on Thursday September 14, 2017 @03:04AM (#15245555)
The policy you are looking for is "defense".

Problem is developed countries don't want to see poor countries arm up. Especially w.r.t. nukes.

Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by danielam on Thursday September 14, 2017 @05:25PM (#15252648)
It's not a simple matter of policy. Culture and civilization are also important.

Take the contemporary Western assumptions that democracy is the best political system, the most natural system and one that ought to be implemented everywhere. Putting aside the question of whether these assumptions are true, consider that merely transplanting a democratic style of governance to a country of a different cultural and civilizational profile will not guarantee that that style of governance will function or last. Ultimately, democracy is a system that developed within the context of a particular variety of Western (particularly what Koneczny calls Latin) civilization. Whether democracy can survive for any meaningful length of time in any other civilization is not a given. It isn't even a given that it will survive in the West in its present form (its tenure has been rather short historically).

Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by yipopov on Thursday September 14, 2017 @04:24AM (#15245936)
>I always wonder why politicians/dictators from developing countries who can also observe these differences ever wonder that the average people in a developed country are living a good life so why not just copy what the developed country is doing and apply the similar policies back home to improve the lives of their own citizens.

They very much do, but they almost always do it in a cargo-cult fashion, imitating the appearance of western progress while remaining ignorant of or uninterested in the underlying mechanics. Take for instance Julius Nyerere, well-intentioned as he was, driving his country into the ditch not once but twice by uncritically accepting foreign ideologies of communist collectivisation first and then unchecked capitalism second, apparently thinking either was some kind of white magic incantation that would bring about prosperity, completely ignoring the systemic factors at work with ordinary Tanzanians.

Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by MisterPC on Thursday September 14, 2017 @05:39AM (#15246290)
It also makes you wonder on the ideal size of a country and whether separate smaller nations or at least regions would be a better structure. Although large countries are the most powerful in the world, it doesn't seem to benefit the citizens very much.

It's also interesting that the 2 countries you mention are former British colonies but in the later the colonists essentially took over the ruling of the country and became the government. Essentially they did copy what what the developed country (Britain) was doing.

Re:Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? by oh_sigh on Thursday September 14, 2017 @03:22AM (#15245625)
Path dependence, and trying to copy effects rather than causes.