Latin American countries are 1st world countries

Only if you're using a very limited definition.

Given that Barbados, the Bahamas, and Jamaica aren't Latinate in language or culture, only an overly broad definition would include them in my opinion.

And you'll notice I also posted about the GDP PPP per capita.

I'm not going to refute someone when they're right. :p

You can't compare Cuba and South Korea in this ay for one very important reason: population.

Today Cuba has a population of 11.2 million compared to South Korea with a population of 50 million.

Now going back to 1960, the point SK entered the rapid industrialization phase it had a population of 25 million where-as Cuba at the time only had a population of 7 million.

Now, while Cuba could build some industries and become First World by the present day, it's never going to be able to be the equivalent of South Korea.

His point may have been that Cuba would be about as wealthy as South Korea is, not as economically powerful.
 

RousseauX

Donor
Not a very good measure of development. There are poor countries with low Gini coefficients (Bangladesh, Eithiopia) and rich ones with high coefficients like the United States. And I'm not sure that statement is accurate either; according to the CIA World Factbook, all of the countries you listed that they have data for have higher Gini coefficients than France.
Gini-Coefficient -is- a good measure of development past a certain GDP per capita, as indicated by the Kuznets curve.

UY274
UY274.png

UY274
 
No, Latin America is defined as the countries of the America's that speak a Romance Language.

The aforementioned countries are Anglophone countries and are not part of Latin America.

So...if Quebec seceded from Canada it would be Latin American?
 
Any single Latin American country might have done a lot better under the right conditions. But having all Latin American countries do a lot better surely requires a change in their history before their independence, since they haven't shared a common historical "tide" since that time.

Which former colonies are first world today? The United States, white Commonwealth countries, the Asian Tigers, Israel and various small countries based on oil or offshore banking. The last three obviously aren't applicable to Latin America, so their development needs to more closely resemble that of America or the Commonwealth colonies.

Americans had "training wheels" in that they were largely self-governing colonies before the revolution. They had a fairly broad base of suffrage/property ownership that reduced social infighting and their revolutionary military was raised by the government rather then the other way around(and largely dismantled after the revolution rather then sticking around and couping). If you have the colonies of Spanish America looking like this then you probably get a first world Latin America, but unfortunately their was a reason Spanish colonies were such a protectionist racket- they were founded by armies rather then settlers and focused on extracting value from non-whites. Plus Spain was culturally more authoritarian and oriented around the community rather then the individual.

So maybe the Commonwealth model is the best way to go? Having Spain make accommodations at some point that grant their colonies more self-governance, and various liberal reforms taking place within the system. All this takes is for Spanish government to be intelligent enough to realize that it can't possibly suppress it's colonies while fighting for it's life against the French, rather then being stupidly stubborn like it was in real history. This probably means slavery and racial discrimination last longer and the Catholic Church is stronger in Latin America. But it also means that they having a "training wheel" phase to set up stable civilian governments without the political elevation of the military, and protection against external threats(America, each other) or internal disorder.
 
Last edited:
Top