Abraham Contos

One thing that made the distribution of wealth so relatively even in America was the availability of land. Whoever wanted land could have it at a very cheap rate. And it was that land that allowed them to create wealth. Everyone had relatively equal access to that source of wealth. In developing countries today they don’t have that same equal access. Some countries have tried policies of land redistribution. But I see an additional problem: technology. In colonial America, everyone had basically the same technology. you could have as much land as you had labor to work the land. Today, some have technology but many don’t in developing countries. So even if you give them land, they are still at a disadvantage if they are trying to build a small investment into a sizable thing of wealth. Theoretically, if they work hard they could build wealth if they only invested the labor, but because of the technology being used on larger corporations the market price will reflect the existence of technology and be a lot lower. Lower prices mean you have to produce more efficiently to make money. So the farmer without the technology can’t make a profit thus creating a disadvantage for small farmers that didn’t exist in early America.

~ by Abraham on 19 January 2011.

Posted in Learning Journal