Rafaela Creamer, Chapter 13, Question #5

I found this chapter interesting because it dealt a lot with countries and developmental wealth and all the ways that they try to stimulate economical growth. There is a section where Wheelan points out that a country that has been through or recently caught in a civil war make up nearly 3/4 of the world's poorest people. The war doesn't allow for businesses to function and therefore hinders the economy from flourishing. This also has to do with geography and location of the country in the region. This two ideas correlate with that of human capital. If the citizens of a country aren't educated and therefore don't have skills there will be less productivity. Wheelman quotes an economist William Easterly that says it can be a vicious cycle, "' If a nation starts out skilled, it gets more skilled. If it starts out unskilled, it stays unskilled'"(302). So once a country falls into that situation then it is very difficult to come out of it.