Burlington High School
Burlington, Kansas
Teacher: Devra Parker
Comparing Economies of the World
By Kenneth McDonald
12th Grade
Comparing the economic freedom of the countries will be very interesting because some of the countries are very poor and have a terrible economy. Also, the countries I picked were fairly small and a few are land locked, which makes it a little bit harder to trade compared to how much easier it is for a country which is near the water.
Laos is one of the world’s poorest countries. Agriculture is the best thing the country has going for them because it employs such a huge work force. The agricultural business brings in over half of the Gross Domestic Product. The main thing that is farmed there that is their cash is rice. The country grows illegal opium and cannabis near the Thailand, which is part of the Golden Triangle. Laos has tremendous opportunity to have huge potential with hydroelectricity, but the country is so underdeveloped. They export a lot of wood products, textile, tin and coffee. Laos is also one of the few remaining communist states, which makes it very hard to have a free economy.
India is very highly populated at over one billion people. Nearly two thirds of that population is in the agriculture. India has the 12th biggest economy in the world and the third behind China and Japan. If the agriculture business isn’t clicking real well, the economy will not be as well. India is moving forward with market-oriented reforms that started in 1991. They have significantly reduced tariffs and other trade barriers. They have also made significant adjustments in the government monetary and fiscal polices. This will help the country of India considerably. It is very hard for India to move ahead because their infrastructure isn’t there and that makes it hard to build a good economy. India has a very cumbersome bureaucracy; there is a lot of corruption, labor market rigidities, and regulatory and foreign investment controls. India’s largest trading partner is the US and also the largest investment partners.
The country of Thailand’s economy is also based a lot around the agriculture and they are a member of the World Trade organization. Their main export is rice. Thailand has lots of marine and fresh water fisheries which also has a big impact on the economy. They are a huge exporter of farmed shrimp. Thailand has huge potential for hydroelectric power and is being developed; projects have started in many of the river systems. The industry of Thailand is growing quickly and doesn’t look like it is slowing down. The transporting of goods and people are very easy because there is so many different ways to move the products of people around because of the immense amount of different kinds of transportation and the Royal Thai government welcomes foreign investment. The tourists help out the economy a lot by spending money and visiting the country.
Luxemburg is known as the "Green Heart of Europe” in most of the information for the tourist. Lately the steel sector of Luxemburg has gone down and the economy had to depend on the Financial Sector to help out the economy. There are 167 banks in Luxemburg and the banks employ over 23,000 people. Luxemburg is also a great foreign investment because of the high tech industry and big countries want to invest in that kind of stuff. Labor relations have been very peaceful since the 1930’s. Most of the workers have some type of union that is linked to some large political party.
Most of these countries’ economies are solely based on farming, all but one of them. Almost all of the countries above are very much involved with the United States, and the United States also has some kind of investment in almost all of the four countries.
The best economically free country is Luxembourg. They have a very stable government. Luxemburg is a huge tourist attraction, which also helps out the economy. The country that is comparable to them is Thailand, except there are a few different things. Thailand is also not as economically free as Luxembourg. One of the things is that they don’t have any unions that are supported by powerful political parties. Also, in Thailand, there is a royal government which controls things just a little bit more, of what goes on so they are not quite as economically free as Luxembourg.
India and Laos are not as economically free as the two countries above. Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world and the economy is terrible. The only thing that keeps Laos a float is that there is a lot of farming that helps keeps the economy going; also the country is full of drugs in the northern part. India has a great economy, but they might as well have a bad one because the government is so corrupt. It is very hard for India to move up economically because they have poor infrastructure.
Comparing all of these countries was interesting because not all of the economies of the world function as well as others. If the country doesn’t have infrastructure they can’t really have a good economy.
Answers To Questions Prompted By The Required Reading
The Benefits of Free Trade
Q1- Be the Devil's Advocate and counter Benjamin Franklin's statement that "No
nation was ever ruined by trade."
Trade can ruin countries. If the country always sends goods that are damaged or not the quality that is expected nobody will want to buy. Also if there is no balance between export and import it could throw off the economy in a country.
Index of Economic
Freedom and Annual Report
(Chapter 3 for links to countries)
Q2- Name five
countries whose ranking surprised you.
1. Luxembourg
2. Thailand
3. India
4. Laos
Q3- Write one sentence each to explain why you chose the countries you did in Q2.
The reason I chose the countries I did was because was because I have heard of the countries before and thought it would be good to learn more about them.
Q4- The USA was not ranked first in any of the years exhibited online in the Annual Report nor in the 2005 Index. List the twelve countries that ranked higher on the Index and the countries that out ranked the USA in the eight Annual Reports.
1. Hong Kong
2. Singapore
3. Luxembourg
4. Estonia
5. Ireland
6. New Zealand
7. United Kingdom
8. Denmark
9. Iceland
10. Australia
11. Chile
12. Switzerland
Q5- The Index uses 50 variables in 10 categories. The Report shows 21 variables in 5 categories and lists 24 sub-variables in its online charts.
As a class project we tried to figure out the question which was asked above. We couldn’t find any information to answer the question due to the complicity of the question.