The Effects of Industrialization on Economies

Industrialization is defined as “the development of industries in a country or region on a wide scale.” This development is heavily correlated with the success of a country’s economy, and according to the United Nations, less than 20% of the global population lives in industrialized countries, with only 63 being classified this way. On the other hand, 47 countries are considered LDC, the least developed countries, and these account for about 13.4% of the world population. Today, we will be going over the differences between industrialized and non industrialized countries, as well as two examples of countries that historically strayed away from industrialization and how it affected their economies today with Afghanistan and Chad. 

Contrasting Societies

It would be wise to assume that those living in richer and more industrialized countries have more opportunities and higher standards of living. The need for education, a fundamental aspect of the development of a country’s economy, increases with industrialization due to the increase in jobs and more skills to learn. In LDCs, only 50% of the population is/was enrolled in secondary school, in comparison to 80% in industrialized countries. Health, on the other hand, has issues in both categories. Industrialization has been linked to numerous health problems, since industrial-related activities can be linked to air pollution, causing respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. These activities can also cause water pollution, which can contaminate water with toxins and chemicals. Finally, waste disposal can cause land pollution and can potentially lead to the consumption of toxins in food. Health problems are much more common in non industrialized countries, with 1 out of 10 people living in Africa dying before the age of 5. This is due to the lack of medicine, and according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 50% of all children in the world who die from diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, malaria, and more live in Africa. While industrialization gives access to many more kinds of medicine, it may not help everyone in society the same, further causing inequality in healthcare access.

Pushing Away the West

Afghanistan is considered a poor country, with 54.5% of the population living below the poverty line. The average salary per month is 30,000 Afghanis, about 473 dollars. In comparison, the average U.S. citizen gets paid around 5,677 dollars per month. When Afghanistan was ruled by Habibullah Khan from 1901 to 1919, the monarchs wanted to raise money for their military, which they did by raising taxes. Raising these taxes slowed the country’s long-term development down significantly. Many countries followed the trends during the Industrial Revolution from 1760 to 1840, but Afghanistan strayed away. Even in the early 1900s, when Western technologies were introduced to the country, they were only allowed to be used for military purposes, which precluded Afghans from starting large-scale businesses and further affecting the economy.

Dissipating Oil and Money

Chad officially became a country on August 11, 1960. Currently, about 42.3% of the population lives under the national poverty line, and since 2017, the industrial production growth rate has gone down by about 4%. But what exactly caused this? In the 1960s, Chad’s economy mainly focused on agriculture, and they strayed away from industrialism. But ten years later, oil was discovered by foreign drillers. Then, in the early 2000s, they started their oil production, producing around 100,000 barrels a day. The government was so confident in this production that it decided to take a loan from the World Bank to further enhance this production, but in the next couple of years, the average real GDP growth rate dropped from 12.6% to 1.1%. This was due to the decline of oil in the country, which many people expected. Most of the country remained in agriculture, with 36% in extreme poverty. The government, with their new wealth from the oil production, instead of helping the country’s financial issues, spent it on their military and politics non-productively, which later caused political corruption.

The Balancing Downsides

Afghanistan strayed away from industrialization, only allowing some exceptions when it was introduced to the country, and Chad originally strayed away as well but spent their money from their chance at industrialization wastefully. Although non-industrialization can cause extreme poverty, industrialization can also have issues along with it. As seen with Chad, the money that comes in from industrial activities, if spent foolishly, can cause more problems than it solves. As stated earlier, both categories of countries have pros and cons, but both also have hope of success for the future, industrialized or not.