Why is growth so important to poorer nations?
Well I assume you mean GDP growth. Because population growth without GDP (income) growth means less wages and worse conditions. But the Solow Model shows that poor countries grow faster than rich countries and that over time there will be absolute convergence (all countries reaching the same size and growing at the same rate) - what do YOU think about that? We now say there is conditional convergence - that countries with similar endowments will achieve the same growth rate and size, but nations like cuba will never grow to the size of the US, right? Poor nations need GDP growth in order to facilitate innovation. It is assumed that every country has a comparative advantage over another country in at least one field. Thus every country needs to be achieving technological innovation that will spur their industry of comparative advantage. Adam smith saw growth as a result of division of labor, which is constrained by the size of the market. A poor country that relies on everyone else for its goods has little market size, since it doesn't export anything. Thus without growth - increasing the size of its market - the country will be stuck in poverty and division of labor and specialization will never yield the growth in income that will remove them from poverty. Hope that helps!
Why education is an important factor in development country?
So you can answer your own questions for homework..
Why would a relatively poor nation like Portugal have played such an important role in exploration?
First of all, back in the days when Portugal was an imperialist power and was sending explorers around the world, it wasn't exactly "poor" to begin with. Compared to Britain it was wealthier in the early days of the Portuguese empire while Britain was a backwater kingdom(15th to 16th centuries) Portugal's location also favored taking the lead in exploration. It's close proximity to Africa and the fact that it is on the Atlantic ocean give easy access to both Africa and the Americas, especially after the Azores(a group of Atlantic islands) became Portuguese possessions.
Why is fairtrade important...?
It really isn't. It screws up the natural economic order of things, and makes it harder for people in wealthier nations to buy products and people in poorer nations to sell products because the buyers will want cheap products. It also ruins competition for those poorer nations who currently haven't set up much competition, because buyers will view it as their duty to pay higher prices to more developed poor nations. Free trade is "fair" trade because it works off what people are willing to pay and sell for without artificially jacking up prices to screw buyers or competition.
Poverty Solutions?
I would want to issue LOANS in the form of bonds to the most promising developing countries' governments that are to be specifically earmarked for certain kinds of infrastructure (policing, basic government functions, city streets, elections, the enforcement of contracts, property rights, securing borders, etc.). To qualify for these loans certain initial qualifications would have to be met (free elections, etc.) and every year or every five years I would have to check in on progress (inspect for corruption, public safety, etc.). I would require liberalization of the economy, privatization, etc. Read Hernando De Soto's book Mystery of Capital for some good illustrations of the kinds of problems I'm talking about. The basic goal would be to get a bare bones (but strong and relatively uncorrupt) kind of government on its feet so that an economy can grow. Apart from basic sanitation, preventing the spread of contagious disease, etc. I would not get into government-ran medicine because it doesn't work. And apart from reading, writing, basic citizenship (history, civic studies, etc.) I would not get involved in education--at least certainly not vocational education. I might require that they reach out to foreign industry (or I may find it more cost-effective and beneficial to getting the bond paid back to do it myself) to attract trade. Some countries set excellent examples for how to go from impoverished undeveloped country to developed prosperous country in under a century. Singapore and Hong Kong are great examples. Chile is a half-example (I say half because aside from economic policy, it was a quasi-fascist government). India is on its way.
What is more important freedom or security?
" The well-being of mankind, its peace and SECURITY, are unattainable unless and until its UNITY is firmly established. " Humanity has evolved through various stages of ever greater social groupings: tribal societies, various feudal systems and city-states. Each stage of this evolution has, as it has developed, thrown up problems that have only been resolved when humanity has moved on to the next stage of its evolution. Our present world situation has resulted from the emergence of the modern nation state. This stage of human evolution has now developed political, economic, ecological, a sense of INSECURITY and other pressing problems that are in urgent need of solutions. Humanity must now evolve beyond this stage to that of GLOBAL UNITY. The application of this principle of unity would see far-reaching changes in many aspects of community life. Adversarial principles govern many of our social institutions: politics, the courts, business, and even many professional and social activities. To an even greater extent do adversarial principles govern the running of international affairs. When statesmen come together in international bodies such as the United Nations, it is almost axiomatic that their only concern will be what is best for their own country regardless of what effect this may have on the rest of the world. This combative approach is undesirable. Society should be regarded as an organism, such as the human body. The organs of the body are different from each other, and yet, for the body to function effectively, the various parts need to work in unity and harmony. Most of the problems that the world faces (including environmental pollution, desertification, global warming, the gap between the rich and poor nations, and INSECURITY) are only soluble if they are dealt with at a global level. These problems will therefore continue to get worse until the world wakes up to this fact.
What are some of the main differences between rich and poor nations?
The main differences between rich and poor nations are:Culture: Poor nations countries have some distinction cultures that affect every single side of the countries such as: corruption, nepotism and collusion. Corruption is triggered by consumptive behavior, in poor countries people wearing branded things will obtain respect from society because they assume these people are rich. Even though there is no direct effect between having fancy things with contribution to the society, people put expectation from rich people. Therefore these kind of people will try hard to have such fancy stuffs and branded things in their lives for the sake of respect. To fund these habits people will do everything to obtain money and generate corruption in the society. Meanwhile nepotism is triggered by emotional bond in the society since brotherhood and sisterhood are so important in poor nations. This is because people will respect someone from how wide his/her network in the society. The reason why people do this because the wider network you have, the easier you run your life. Finally, collusion is triggered by nepotism because the strong bond between people. This situation will make people work together to push a group of people that has no same idea with one group of people and commonly this happen between minority and majority. However, collusion could be positive in developing countries if a group of well educated people work together to protect poor (weak) people from mislead information (hoax) that could create riots.Poor education: Corruption will reduce budget to society include education. This situation will lead to unprofessional teacher, lack of infrastructure and messy curriculum. Curriculum is set not to make student work together but compete each other therefore when they are adult they will fight instead of working together to fix their nations.Unhappy people: Most of people are not happy in poor nations because poor economy forces people to work hard therefore they do not have time to think about their happiness.In Indonesia poor people are still majority because of above explanation, it needs strong effort to change people so they can have better ethic and attitude.
Why can't poor countries simply print more money?
My American High School education has taught me nothing about the economy. This is an important time in American history, we were in a recession, Dow stocks are low, and I have no idea what's going on. But I do have a question. Why can't poor countries simply print more money? If you do not have a clue what the hell you are talking about, gtfo.
What is more important for a government: making its country more technologically advanced or helping the homeless and poor?
In an ideal scenario, an ideal government would invest both in the country's technological development and in solving social problems. In vain, develop advanced technology if there's no one to use, right? Homeless and poor people do not care about the performance of the latest i-phone on the market or the discovery of water on the planet Mars with Advanced Radars for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding, but they care if they have a roof overhead and an income to help them lead a decent living.