The differences between rich and poor countries.

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The Differences between Rich and Poor Countries

More economically developed countries are richer. This means that the countries make more money and the people in the countries have more money to spend on health, education, food and luxuries. People in these countries earn enough money so that they can borrow even more and buy their own houses and cars. They do jobs in the service industries, which mean they help people, like teachers and doctors.

Less economically developed countries are poorer. That means that the countries make less money and the people in those countries have little money to spend on health, education, food and luxuries. People in these countries often grow their own food to feed themselves and their families. This means that lots of people in less economically developed countries are farmers.

Why Are Some Countries So Poor

There are lots of reasons why some countries like Africa and the Indian sub continent are so poor.

Here are a few of these reasons:

  • They are mostly old colonial countries. This means that they used to be ruled by one of the rich countries. E.g. Britain used to rule over India. During that period of time the country was exploited by removing the valuable natural resources and not paying a fair price for them.
  • Since many of these countries have become independent they still haven't been treated very well. Natural resources, like iron ore, are still bought from them by richer countries which do not pay very much for them. Raw materials are generally quite cheap. They are then turned into something useful and sold back for a very high price. This means that the poor countries actually get poorer.
  • As well as the rich countries actually exploiting the poor ones they have international debt. Many poor countries have borrowed billions of pounds from the rich countries which charge huge amounts of interest on the loans, thereby increasing the gap between rich and poor.

  • Even after all of this there is nature to think about. Nicaragua, a poor country, borrowed millions to build some roads and bridges to help its industry. Along came a hurricane and destroyed the roads and bridges that they haven’t finished paying for yet, so they have to borrow more to re-build them.
  • Many poor countries are dependant on one major export; Kenya for example is dependent on tea and coffee. This is fine when the world price of tea and coffee is high. But when we buy our tea and coffee from another country Kenya loses out as it does not make any more money.
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Why are Some Countries Rich and Some Countries Poor

In the past pretty much all countries in the world where about as rich as each other. Some were doing things differently; China for example was way ahead of countries like the UK in terms of writing and maths.

Then the European countries set about taking over areas of the world and forming vast empires, just like the Romans really. But there was one major spin off from this; the European countries suddenly owned a huge amount of land that produced crops that could be used in ...

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