The Six Factors of Economic Success
1. Peace
2. Honest Government
3. Capital
4. Population control
5. Infrastructure
6. Skilled workers
The first of our evaluative benchmarks used to analyze the different regions we found implied, but often hidden, through much of our geography text. We have made it an explicit tool, which must be addressed in every essay. We call it The Six Factors of Economic Success.
The six factors include, in no particular order, peace, honest government, capital, population control, infrastructure, and skilled workers.
The Six Factors of Economic Success provide our students with some clear parameters to evaluate a region’s ability to succeed economically.
Peace is the lack of war, civil unrest, or other internal or external conflict, which deplete the financial, and human resources of a country. The students study the history and current events of a region to determine whether or how any conflicts impede development.
Honest Government is a difficult but important benchmark to consider. Our students look for representative democracies that are able to have peaceful transitions of power.
The students evaluate how diverse views, ethnicities and races are represented and their voices heard. Disbursement of income, levels of education and healthcare provide evidence as to how well a government is able use its available resources to meet the needs of the people.
Capital harkens back to the saying; “it takes money to make money”. GDP Per Capita provides clear data from most countries of the people’s ability to meet their basic needs as well as a government’s ability to garner the tax revenues needed to foster continued economic development with programs that foster health, education and the general welfare of the people. Students evaluate a region’s natural resources and the ability to generate capital.
Population control provides a benchmark to evaluate a region’s future potential to determine and meet the needs of its people. If we didn’t know how many friends our kids were bringing home to supper each night it would be difficult to plan a meal let alone budget for the week’s groceries. Governments and regions face the same challenges planning for the future. The students gather statistics of life expectancy, population growth rate, population density and distribution, and infant mortality. These statistics assist the student in their analysis of how best a region should plan and prioritize for its future.
Infrastructure includes roads, bridges, airports, and seaports, power and telecommunication networks, as well as the natural infrastructure navigable rivers, accessible coastlines and level topography provide. To develop and maintain an economy based on trade a region needs the ability to move its goods and services within and without the region. Each region’s geography in evaluated based upon their natural infrastructure as well as its ability to develop and maintain modern transportation and communication networks.
Skilled workers provide a benchmark of the level of education of the population of a region. The students use literacy rate and school enrollment data to evaluate what types of jobs the populous is capable of performing as well as the government’s commitment to promoting and funding education.
When using these six factors of economic success as evaluative benchmarks it becomes quickly apparent that although none are paramount, they are entwined and dependent on each other. They provide real tools and a common language to evaluate, analyze and synthesize the information to help predict and develop priorities for the future.
We use our geography text as a resource for much of the data needed as well as world almanacs, and the Internet. The CIA Factbook and the United Nation’s Human Development Index provide data from every country. Many countries also provide web sites with many valuable resources.
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