Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Why are some countries richer than others?
Why are some countries richer than others?
Aug 18, 2025 1:21 PM

Note: This is post #73 in a weekly video series on basic economics.

Mexico is wealthier than Central African Republic, and the United States is much wealthier than Mexico. Why is this true? Why do some countries have wealth that is 10 to 100 timesmore than another country? Why can some citizens in one country purchase so many more goods and services than people in a neighboring country?

In this video by Marginal Revolution University,Alex Tabarrok answers those questions and explains why we can learn so much about a country’s wealth and standard of living by looking at real GDP per capita—a country’s gross domestic product, divided by its population.

(If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching them at 1.5 to 2 times the speed. You can adjust the speed at which the video plays by clicking on “Settings” (the gear symbol) and changing “Speed” from normal to 1.25, 1.5 or 2.)

Click here to see other videos in the Introduction to Economics series.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Rubio Has A Point: Philosophy Majors Don’t Work In Philosophy
Correction: An earlier version of this post did not examine PayScale’s methodology. The three paragraphs that address it were added, and the text has been lightly edited in other places as a result. If the post now reads unevenly, that is why. Short version: I was a bit too hard on Mr. Bump due to my own lack of due diligence. Mea culpa. At last night’s fourth GOP debate on Fox Business, Florida Senator Marco Rubio lamented, “For the life...
Religion & Liberty: Kitchen Redemption
Brandon Chrostowski demonstrates a cooking technique at Edwins Early in October, I took a trip to Cleveland to learn about Edwins Leadership and Restaurant Institute and its founder, Brandon Chrostowski. Edwins is the “teaching hospital” of restaurants. It teaches people with zero hospitality experience the basics of restaurant business through a free six month course. The one requirement to get into the program? Jail time. Chrostowski was inspired to start Edwins after his own brush with the law and a...
Radio Free Acton: Bradley Birzer on Russell Kirk and the Genesis of American Conservatism (With Bonus Kirk Video)
This week on Radio Free Acton, we’re joined by Bradley J. Birzer, the Russell Amos Kirk Chair of American Studies and Professor of History at Hillsdale College, and the author of a new biography of the founding father of the American conservative movement, Russell Kirk. Birzer’s book,Russell Kirk: American Conservative, examines the life and thought of Kirk, the means he used to build a conservative Christian humanist movement, and examines Kirk’sinfluence on conservative leaders who followed. We at the Acton...
Ben Carson is Right: Minimum Wage Laws Hurt Black Workers
In last night’s GOP presidential candidate debate, Dr. Ben Carson was asked if he would raise the federal minimum wage. Carson said that he would not do so because the minimum wage hurts workers, especially those in the munity: People need to be educated on the minimum wage. Every time we raise the minimum wage, the number of jobless people increases. This is particularly a problem in the munity. Only 19.8 percent of black teenagers have a job. Or are...
What Does the World Think of Capitalism?
What do people around the globe think of capitalism? To find out the answer the Legatum missioned YouGov to ask ten questions of populations in seven nations. First, the bad news. Contrary to overwhelming evidence, large majorities in all seven of the nations surveyed agree that the poor get poorer in capitalist economies. The survey also notes that majorities of the populations in America, Brazil, India, Thailand, and Indonesia support protectionist measures to defend their manufacturing industries from low cost...
What If There Were No Prices?
I’m something of a cheapskate (or as I prefer to think of myself, prudentially frugal) and so I take special pleasure in finding a good deal. I’m also, by nature, rather grateful and so I frequently thank God for helping me to find goods and services at bargain prices. But sometimes I remember to step back and be grateful for the larger system God has created that makes such exchanges possible: the price system. As I’ve said before, a “price...
Video: Kishore Jayabalan on Reforming the Roman Curia
The Roman Curia faces more scrutiny after the release of two new books in Italy based on leaked documents from the Vatican that appear to reveal inappropriate use of church funds. France 24 turned to Kishore Jayabalan, director of Istituto Acton in Rome, for his analysis of the situation. Below, we’ve posted a portion of his appearance on France 24; the full panel discussion took up most of a broadcast hour. The full exchange is available on France 24’s website...
Kuyper’s Impact on Chuck Colson
“I’ve done my best to popularize Kuyper, because that’s what’s so desperately needed in Western civilization today: a looking at all of life through God’s eyes.” –Chuck Colson Given the recent release of Abraham Kuyper’s 12-volume collection of works in public theology, it’s worth noting his influence on modern-day shapers of Christian thought and action. From Francis Schaeffer to Cornelius Van Til to Alvin Plantinga, Kuyper’s works have expanded the cultural imaginations of many. Another devotee was the late Chuck...
Even the Federal Government Doesn’t Know If Their Regulations Are Effective
Of all the executive orders issued by President Obama, one of the most important is one most people never knew existed: Executive Order 13563 – Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review . In the order, the president requires federal agencies to perform a “retrospective analysis” of existing regulations to evaluate their efficiency and effectiveness: (a) To facilitate the periodic review of existing significant regulations, agencies shall consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient,...
How to Solve the ‘Welders vs. Philosophers’ Debate, the Crisis in Underemployment, and the Student Loan Debt Problem of Liberal Arts Majors
A most unlikely debate has erupted over Marco ment in last night’s debate that welders earn more money that philosophers. It’s a strange controversy since, as Steven Wedgeworth said on Twitter, “There can’t really be this many philosophy majors.” He’s right, of course. But the debate isn’t really about which profession makes more money (at least I don’t think it is). It seems to be more a defense of the liberal arts in general. What is peculiar is that philosophy...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved