Economics is a science that tries to unearth, explain, and influence the conditions responsible for the lifestyles people lead. It’s both an easy and difficult concept to grasp. On one hand we have simple truths that even a child can understand (such as the prices of commodities), and on the other hand we have varying economic facts that have scholars on edge. That’s not to say economics is entirely impossible. An understanding of economics in modern times has been achieved ground up; from individual decisions, to households, to community, and eventually to the state. It’s an accepted fact that people’s lifestyles in developed and underdeveloped countries vary enormously. In this article, I talk about the economics in African countries, factors that play a role, and economic development.
Economists use the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita to measure the economy’s total output. In other terms, GDP and national income go hand in hand. Recent GDP per capita analyses reveal three states of economy: rich, middle, and poor income nations. Most of the African countries fall in the latter category with little to no hopes of ever catching up with the more developed countries. The GDP per capita of rich countries continues to grow day by day whereas the GDP per capita of poor countries, especially Sub Saharan Africa countries, continues to decline.
We can pin point to a number of obvious factors responsible for the poor economies in African countries. Topping the list is lack of efficient equipments to work with; be it electronics or antibiotics. Secondly, people in African countries are largely illiterate or poorly educated and hence unable to make use of the knowledge acquired through schooling. Many economists speculate that the economic growth of a nation is highly fueled by production of novel ideas. Another factor responsible for poor economies is health and population growth. The life expectancy in African countries is bordering on late 50s, and cases such as malnutrition, poor hygiene, susceptibility to infections, draughts, and other natural calamities still reign. Furthermore, the high population growth rate in African countries has only served to add pressure in resource sharing.What is holding back economic development in African countries?
When comparing rich and poor countries, developed countries stand out for having established effective governments and policies that promote development. This is something difficult to achieve in African countries which are riddled with corruption and wastage of resources. African governments tend to be undisciplined, corrupt, ineffective, and disobey the rules; a factor that consequentially leads to low productivity. Common citizens are forced to bribe in order to get services that should otherwise be freely given by the government. In turn, bribery raises the production costs leading to production of fewer products and price elevation. At the end of the day, the common citizen continues to suffer the most.
All in all, economics is a crucial topic because in one way or another we are all natural economists. African countries have poor economies and that is attributed to a number of factors such as poor governance and policies, poor infrastructure, illiteracy, poor living conditions etc. Growth in GDP per capita is the first step in improvement of the quality of life of a country’s people. However there is no standard way of ensuring economic growth: economists agree it’s a combination of accumulated manufactured capital, human capital and the implementation of new ideas.
The mind is a prediction machine. This is basically how worrying comes about: your mind trying to prepare, protect or warn you by coming up with scenarios on how it could possibly go. Let’s say I have an interview tomorrow, my mind will come up with predictions on how the experience could go and my thought process will be something like: what if I wake up late? What if my outfit isn’t professional enough? What if I say all the wrong things? What if I’m not qualified enough? Is my CV good? I’m I confident enough? What if I don’t impress them? What if I’m nervous and anxious then?…it could go on and on. But at the end of the day, as important as those warnings are, it’s best to remember they are your mind’s doing, and have nothing to do with how the situation will play out. So instead of missing out on that interview because you think you won’t get in, or failing to ask that girl out because you think you’ll be rejected, or turning down everybody who shows interest because you’ve predicted future heartbreaks, or putting off publishing that book because you already think no one will read it… It’s best to find out how the situation will play by forgetting what you think will happen and actually giving it a chance to happen.Your mind is your reality. I found some quote on Insta that said: you become what you constantly think about, and I couldn’t agree more. It’s easier to notice mistakes when you are always thinking of mistakes, it’s easy to find opportunities when you are always thinking of opportunities, it’s easy to be happy when you are always thinking positive… Belief is a very powerful thing, and it’s been proven that what you believe in often than not manifests in your own reality. A story I read somewhere: A man and his family lived in their home for years without anything extraordinary happening, until one distant relative visited. Now, the relative being a man who loved to prank, came up with ghost stories about one particular room in the house. He claimed the room he’d been given was haunted by the ghost of a woman who moved by tapping on the floor, going further to describe the ghost’s physical appearance. It may have been a made up story, but the next morning, the little girl who had slept in the room confirmed she’d heard the ghost tap. Soon, everyone in the family was convinced there was a ghost in the room. So they told their neighbor, and asked him to spend a night in the room and prove them otherwise, but the next day, the neighbor was also certain he’d seen the ghost. What they didn’t realize was that there was no ghost at all, but only a projection of what their minds wanted to see and hear.
