Geography of
Economy
We already covered the
development of Europe and their rise up the economic ladder of affluence. Now we will focus on
America's input concerning
economic development. The first thing one should consider about our economic system is the political system that
protects it.
It has been said of America that it is a
system designed by geniuses so that it could be run by idiots. The real source of America's
prosperity is the combination of free markets, political institutions, and political
consensus that protects property and innovation, ensures fair play, encourages the most
aggressive players to succeed and provides "some minimum safety nets to catch the
losers." (quotes from Thomas Friedman, 2000)
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, visionaries like
Hewlett, Packard, and Gates had
a new economic sector to give to the world. The "techies" created computers and programming
language, which made the Internet
(created by Briton Tim Berners-Lee) possible. By doing this they added to America's level of wealth and added
another sector to the economy.
The only difference between the countries of the world is how many workers they have employed in each sector. For
the US, we see the new quaternary
sector has the most workers which brings a level of wealth and prosperity heretofore unknown to the
world.