In the media and free online sources, there are many materials on the concept of "Golden Billion." It reflects an imbalance in the standard of living between developed and developing countries, becoming the basis for the development of various theories up to the destruction of objectionable races and peoples. In fact, as often seen in free media, much noise is made from “nothing, ” and the so-called Golden Billion countries are nothing more than engines of technical and industrial progress that have earned their title.
Brief description of the term
In the CIS in the post-Soviet era, due to the fact that people managed to learn about the so-called plan of Allen Dulles, the former director of the CIA, conspiracy theories began to multiply. Their main idea is that states that are economically and militarily strong, and even imperious families of tycoons from the USA and England, have long hatched a plan for the fragmentation of large states in order to impose on them unfavorable conditions for cooperation up to military capture or enslavement. They also mention the countries of the Golden Billion, whose citizens, making up the world elite, will have to populate the liberated territories.
The term “Golden Billion” itself is a stupid allegory based on the fact that success has been achieved in countries where the population at the time of the “replication” of the hypothesis was 1 billion people. There are 7 billion on the planet today, and 6 billion people do not earn even half of how much the Golden Billion has. This is the name of the population of the United States and Canada, Japan and the European Union, which is approximately one billion in number. And the only problem is that such a situation seems unfair and pre-planned, necessary to enslave the remaining 6 billion people to meet the needs of 1 billion elite.
Raw "evidence"
Oil into the fire of insanity is added by the fact that large states with developed economies and included in the so-called "Billion" use much more resources, and their population is much richer. For example, the main consumers of non-ferrous metal and minerals mined in the 20th century, as well as oil and gas, are residents of the United States, the European Union, Canada and Japan. In 1970-1980, they consumed almost 90% of nickel, copper and aluminum, as well as almost 70% of the extracted oil.
Consumption of these raw materials continues to increase in the 21st century, while in countries where mining is conducted, economic growth is not observed. The latter fact is so outraged by the public that the theory of the "Golden Billion" supposedly fully justifies the division into "masters and slaves." And in the role of slaves, of course, all those who work hard but do not earn enough to classify themselves as middle class. Rich countries get richer, and undeveloped ones get poorer.
The authors of the hypothesis suggest turning to the distribution of resources in the world. For example, Europe has virtually no reserves of ore, oil and gas, and therefore buys them mainly from Russia. According to “homegrown analysts, ” the European Union pays pennies to Russia, and the citizens themselves deserve more. For some reason, to understand that the commodity economy cannot be successful is not proposed in the description of the “conspiracy”. But it is easy to guess that countries lagging behind in development are forced to sell raw materials, since they do not have the technology to process it.
Technological differences
Technology is the same achievement as the availability of natural resources. And if Russia does not give free oil, why should the Western state offer technology for free, losing its competitive advantage? The law on market competition is not considered by such “analysts” either. The only question is why the funds received from the sale of raw materials are not used to develop full-cycle production. It is in this that developed countries are ahead of poor countries, because they already have fundamental technologies that allow them to earn income from almost everything. And many undeveloped states have to pay for simple items, since they themselves are not able to produce such things.
An example from the field of pharmacology
The pharmacological industry should be mentioned as an example. To produce a drug, you need to have raw materials for its production, capacity for its processing and packaging, as well as clinical trials. The drug, which is bought in a pharmacy, already contains these components in its price. And an undeveloped country can invest in them only raw materials extracted from oil. More precisely, to supply the oil itself, because due to technical underdevelopment, it will not be possible to isolate the substrate for drug synthesis in the absence of the necessary equipment.
As a result, an undeveloped country invests only raw materials to extract the molecules from which the drug will be created. But clinical and scientific research, finding the drug’s formula, testing, synthesis, purification and production of the drug itself lies on the back of our “conspirators”. And when they sell a medicine to countries that are lagging behind in development, they get a certain amount. It contains 95% of the contribution of science and technological progress, and only 5% is the raw material component. Therefore, the oil producer receives only 5% from its price, and the producer receives the remaining 95% of the cost.
Since it was the manufacturer who did 95% of the work, it is natural that he receives 95% of the cost of the final product. And since enterprises for processing are predominantly in developed countries, they require much more raw materials than other states of the world. In undeveloped countries, valuable materials can literally wallow under your feet and be unnecessary, because they do not have the technology and capacity to process them.
Electronics and Radio Engineering
A similar situation is with non-ferrous metals in electronics. Who will get more money by producing a computer processor? A metal supplier or company that has developed the technology and uses it? And the countries of the "Golden Billion" just form the backbone of the production of high-tech devices. Among them are diagnostic medical equipment, televisions, smartphones, computers, research devices, robotics, military equipment. On this they earned their welfare, and not on the exploitation of "slaves."
Of course, part of the welfare of developed countries, especially in the case of Great Britain, Spain, Portugal and France, is ensured by an active colonial past. Having been a disgrace to the civilized world, today it has no value. All his achievements were spent on the development of technology and production. Today, funds left over from the operation of the former colonies are not available.
There is a reverse example: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong. Their well-being indicators are excellent. But this has not always been the case, but has happened in the last 50 years due to the active development of the technical industry and the rejection of the commodity economy. These were beggars and conquered countries. But today they can also rank themselves as countries of the Golden Billion, and therefore such a concept should not imply anything negative. This should be perceived as the fact that there is the so-called “Billion”, where technical and scientific progress has been actively and for good.
Production Success Statistics
There are few states that can boast of a strong industrial economy, about 1/8 of the number of all countries in the world. There are others who live in the agrarian and raw materials economy. The former are much more successful, because they work hard and have a strategic development plan. The latter work on the production of food, clothing, and produce raw materials, but lose part of their savings on the purchase of high-tech goods. That is why their foreign currency disappears, and the exchange rate of their own monetary unit decreases.
Competent import substitution is a good alternative for them, but they prefer not to develop along a difficult path. In general, it has historically developed that in states where economic development is weak, the desire to work among the population is smoldering at heart. While the population of developed countries sees prospects, receives a quality education and achieves success through high-tech, highly productive labor.
Graduation of states in terms of living
It is possible to demonstrate an example of successful economic planning and achieving success in production by rating the standard of living in states. According to published UN reports, the welfare rating is as follows. The first place is Norway, the second is Sweden, the fourth is Canada, the fifth is Australia, the sixth is the USA, the seventh is Iceland, the eighth is the Netherlands, ninth is Japan, tenth is Finland, eleventh is Switzerland, twelfth is France, for Great Britain, Denmark and Austria. These are precisely those countries of the "Golden Billion" whose success it is customary to envy us. There are only 15 of them. They are the best in their sectors, take better care of the population and are able to successfully develop further.
Economic rationale for success
The high standard of living in the countries of the world, the rating of which is indicated above, is easily explained with the help of economic laws. These are states with a developed manufacturing industry. Some exceptions are Norway and Denmark, which remain suppliers of oil and gas to Europe. The first was a poor country until the 60s. Twentieth century, after which she found the resources. By mining and supplying them to Europe, it has reached a high level of prosperity. And it is explained by greater profits than Russia, since the creation of transport infrastructure did not require so many resources. The route to Europe from Norway and Denmark is much shorter, and therefore cheaper.
A similar situation is with Denmark, although alternative energy and industry are developing in both countries. The rest of the Golden Billion countries, the list of which was proposed in the form of a rating, achieved their well-being through labor and industrial superiority. They would be able to get ahead of both Norway and Denmark in terms of living standards, but in the case of the latter, money is simply spent on fewer people. Therefore, per capita earnings are higher, and social security is higher.
The benefits of the "Golden billion"
As can be seen from the above arguments, the concept of the "Golden billion" cannot be considered negative. This is such an unannounced club of states that they get into if they succeed in ensuring the welfare of their people. This is not a mythical theory of conspirators, but an objective characteristic of success in the technical industry, in medicine, in information technology and robotics. This is the result of competent forecasting and successful implementation of technologies.
The so-called “Golden Billion” is the population of the states that are most successful in the economy due to their labor. And other countries, as demonstrated by the example of South Korea and Japan, will easily join this “club” if they raise their education level by an order of magnitude and invest in high-tech industries. They can receive funds in the form of loans or earn money in the commodity or agricultural economy. But they must be invested in progress, and not be closed from it, justifying their inaction by theories of the conspiracy of the elites.
Criticism of A. Wasserman
Anatoly Wasserman considers the conspiracy theory unlikely, invented by the people themselves. And for the formation of any idea, a person needs to reduce a couple of facts, which will already explain any of our failures. The problem is that such conclusions will happily be supported by any politician through whose fault no real achievement has happened. The same can explain all kinds of political and economic failures. It is so easy to rid yourself of guilt and your electorate if there is an interesting totality of always conquering and all-knowing organized minorities. The idea is brought into everyday life that they have been building their plan for centuries, and therefore it is honed to the ideal, there can be no misses in it.
This theory fosters ignorance, lag and barbarism. In failure, you need to understand and adjust to the surrounding reality, and not explain your own failure with the help of myths. Customers and champions of the Golden Billion idea are political figures whose habit it has become to confuse decisiveness with fussiness. At the same time, people living under such power suffer from it and from stupid impossible ideas.
