GEOG 6 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Infant Mortality, Inca Empire, Zambezi
Document Summary
In richest countries, average income is 400x the avg income of people in poorest countries. Very important to poor countries so they can become rich, rich countries can use this info to design more effective foreign aid programs. Netherlands is cold af, only one crop can be grown. No mountains - no dams or hydroelectric power. Right across from germany, which has a huge military (has been conquered recently). Only dikes protect it from flooding, they broke in 1950s. Zambia: doesn"t have to buy any oil, natural gas, or coal. All public energy comes from huge dams on zambezi river. They can export and sell electricity to neighboring country like south africa. Avg income in netherlands is 100x higher than that in zambia. Measures of economic activity: lights, noise levels, roads. Zambia has agriculture by hand, in netherland it"s mechanized. Most economists say wealth differences can be explained by human institutions. Some motivate people to work hard, others don"t.
