Name: Yuzhu Gong Due Date: 2015/11/15
Article Title: The Geography of Poverty and Wealth
Author/Source: Scientific American
Article Title: The Geography of Poverty and Wealth
Author/Source: Scientific American
A: List major ideas, concepts or key points - point by point
- The question of segregation between poor and wealth has always been bothering people.
- Physical geography of a region can influence its economic performance.
- The economies of coastal regions, with their easy access to sea trade, usually outperform the economies of inland areas.
- Moreover, an area’s climate can also affect its economic development.
- Nations in tropical climate zones generally face higher rates of infectious disease and lower agricultural productivity (especially for staple foods) than do nations in temperate zones.
- The very poorest regions in the world are those saddled with both handicaps: distance from sea trade and a tropical or desert ecology.
- The best single indicator of prosperity is gross national product (GNP) per capita—the total value of a country’s economic output, divided by its population.
- Majority of the poorest countries lie in the geographical tropics—the area between the tropic of Cancer and the tropic of Capricorn.
- In contrast, most of the richest countries lie in the temperate zones.
- Geographical divide can be obtained by defining tropical regions by climate rather than by latitude.
- Almost all the temperate-zone countries have either high-income economies or middle income economies burdened by socialist policies in the past.
- In addition, there is a strong temperate-tropical divide within countries that straddle both types of climates.
- It is really important for the access to sea trade.
- Regions far from the sea tend to be considerably poorer than their coastal counterparts.
- Global production is highly concentrated in the coastal regions of temperate climate zones.
- Economies differ in their ease of transporting goods, people and ideas.
- Sea trade is less costly than land- or air-based trade, economies near coastlines have a great advantage over hinterland economies.
- Geography affects the prevalence of disease.
- Many kinds of infectious diseases are endemic to the tropical and subtropical zones.
- A high incidence of disease can alter the age structure of a country’s population, because societies with high levels of child mortality tend to have high levels of fertility.
- Geography affects agricultural productivity.
- Social and economic institutions are critical to long-term economic performance.
- The main implication of our findings is that policymakers should pay more attention to the developmental barriers associated with geography.
- Specifically, poor health, low agricultural productivity and high transportation costs.
- A serious effort at global development will require not just better economic policies in the poor countries but far more financial support from the rich countries to help overcome the special problems imposed by geography.
B: Summarize the author's main point or idea
Summary of Author's Main Points:
In this article, author states that geography affects economy due to several reasons. First, economies differ in their ease of transporting goods, people and ideas. Because sea trade is less costly than land- or air-based trade, economies near coastlines have a great advantage over hinterland economies. Second, geography affects the prevalence of disease. Because even though malaria and helminthic infections have occurred in Europe in the past century but the diseases never gained a lasting foothold in the temperate zones. Malaria and other diseases can kill people, widespread illness and early deaths obviously hold back a nation’s economic performance by significantly reducing worker productivity. A huge change of age structure can occur according to the situation which leads to high level of child mortality. Addition to that, societies with high levels of child mortality tend to have high levels of fertility. That really causes problem in account of poor families cannot invest much money into each child's education. Third, geography affects agricultural productivity. Rice is usually growing in temperate and subtropical zones, otherwise it is hard to grow other places.
Summary of Author's Main Points:
In this article, author states that geography affects economy due to several reasons. First, economies differ in their ease of transporting goods, people and ideas. Because sea trade is less costly than land- or air-based trade, economies near coastlines have a great advantage over hinterland economies. Second, geography affects the prevalence of disease. Because even though malaria and helminthic infections have occurred in Europe in the past century but the diseases never gained a lasting foothold in the temperate zones. Malaria and other diseases can kill people, widespread illness and early deaths obviously hold back a nation’s economic performance by significantly reducing worker productivity. A huge change of age structure can occur according to the situation which leads to high level of child mortality. Addition to that, societies with high levels of child mortality tend to have high levels of fertility. That really causes problem in account of poor families cannot invest much money into each child's education. Third, geography affects agricultural productivity. Rice is usually growing in temperate and subtropical zones, otherwise it is hard to grow other places.
C: Reaction to the article
My Own Thoughts on the Topic:
I think this article really reveals the correlation between poor and wealth in a geographic manner. In fact, I already knew some of the points that author mentioned, but I still learned a lot of things from this. Coastal areas are generally richer than others areas are inland because of the coastal trades. Diseases can cause severe problem because it kills people which can change the age structure of a country therefore lead to more problems, thus, it is a circulation. Last but not least, the sustenance, obviously people need them to survive, but some foods are can only be produced in certain areas, for instance, rice can only be planted in temperate and subtropical zones, otherwise it is almost impossible. The main implication of our findings is that policymakers should pay more attention to the developmental barriers associated with geography.
My Own Thoughts on the Topic:
I think this article really reveals the correlation between poor and wealth in a geographic manner. In fact, I already knew some of the points that author mentioned, but I still learned a lot of things from this. Coastal areas are generally richer than others areas are inland because of the coastal trades. Diseases can cause severe problem because it kills people which can change the age structure of a country therefore lead to more problems, thus, it is a circulation. Last but not least, the sustenance, obviously people need them to survive, but some foods are can only be produced in certain areas, for instance, rice can only be planted in temperate and subtropical zones, otherwise it is almost impossible. The main implication of our findings is that policymakers should pay more attention to the developmental barriers associated with geography.