Transcript Spatial Distribution of Wealth Power Point

Spatial Distribution of
Wealth
Measuring the Wealth of Countries
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GNP- Gross National Product
Countries GDP (income earned from all
domestic goods and services) plus the
income earned on foreign investments
GNP = GDP + net income on foreign
investments
Usually divided by population to give GNP
per capita
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Used to classify countries based on
standard of living
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LLDC = GNP per capita less than $765
LDC = GNP per capita b/w $766 and $9385
MDC = GNP per capita more than $9386
Measuring the Health of Countries
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Measuring standard of living with GNP per
capita can be misleading b/c …
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It ignores terrible pockets of poverty that exist
in some MDC’s, and the pockets of wealth
that exist in some LDC’s
Money is not the sole factor of a countries
well being
Taking these things into account standard
of living is now measured by the United
Nations Human Development Index
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Human development index takes into
account:
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Longevity (life expectancy)
Knowledge (literacy rates, education attained)
Income (GDP per capita)
Assignment
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Go to www.un.org
1. What does UN stand for?
Click on About the UN
Basic facts about the
UN
The Organization
2. What is the UN’s purpose?
3. What kind of budget do they have for a year?
What are some of the family of organizations
they have? Click on this link Look under the
titles starting with United Nations (you should
recognize some)
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Read through the links on the left hand
side of the page to see how the UN
supports different issues in the world (eg.
Human Rights link)
When finished the UN questions…
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Go to
http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics
This is the web site for the Human
Development Index report 2006
You will find the rankings of countries on
the right hand side of the page. Choose a
country and click on it
Answer the following questions:
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1. What does HDI not include in it’s
measure?
2. Are all three measures ranked the
same? (GDP, Life expectancy and
economic sectors)
3. Look at figure 1, why is it not fair to
only measure a countries standard of
living based on GDP?
North- South Divide
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Economic differences between North and South
countries have evolved because:
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The first industrial revolution first began in Great
Britain and gradual spread to other countries.
This spread was very uneven in the southern
hemisphere because they lacked the
infrastructure of good transportation and
communication systems to capitalize on new
technologies
Many of these countries were already colonies of
European countries who exploited their natural
resources
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LDC countries have not made it to
Rostow’s “take off” stage
Until they are able to concentrate on
manufacturing and services instead of
resource extraction they will not be able to
grow