“Money cant buy happiness, but it can prevent a lot of misery”

I don't know why people are complaining about the series. It's way better than my economics classes in college...

Summary for you guys: 1. Why some countries have high GDP and others have low( some countries are rich and other poor): a. Lack of natural resources. b. Corrupt governments. 2. GDP per capita(output per person) is used to tell how wealthy a country is. 3. Countries with high GDP/capita have far less infant mortality, poverty and preventable diseases. 4. Productivity and growth: a. The more a worker produces, the more a worker can earn. b. Economists argue that the main reason that some countries are rich is because of productiivty. c. Higher value produce also the growth effect. d. Productivity is key, but there are limits. 5. People in poor countries need food, water, plumbing, hospitals and medicine, and all of those things are needed to get better efficiency. 6. How much stuff is produced per person(can be called GDP) 7. Factors of production effect the efficiency: a. Land b. Workers c. Capital( and also workers education, knowledge aka human capital) d. Technology: The sum total of knowledge and information that society has acquired concerning the use of resources to produce goods and services. (Connectivity= productivity). Increasing Productivity has resulted in increasing standards of living(globally and historically).

One minor criticism: I don't think we can call South Korea 'developing' anymore. They arrived at 'developed' sometime in the mid-2000s.

Crash Course should create a link to a website with a worksheet to help reinforce the information we just learned.

Don't get me wrong, but there are historical factors too, colonialism, and such. It's quite hard to be rich, if it's someone else running your economy. And many of those countries have quite frequent conflicts nowadays, which also hinders growth. (Like if there is a civil war every few years, it's rather hard to have a healthy economy going)

I think i will donate to crash course, 100 billion dollars (Zimbabwean)

85% of the comments: tone down on the humor it's not a kids show 10%: Zimbabwe is poor because of the US and Nestle 5%: summary notes

Well, it has to do a lot with the historical context of each country, also. I mean, most of India´s natural resources were took away by the UK for a long time, as an example. It´s important to have in mind that there are countries that need others to keep poor... Also, GDP per capita is the same illusion as GDS: a rich country does not mean people are richer. It is much more important to look at the money equality rates.

You know you're a nerd when you binge-watch crash course

More substantively than the typo, I worry that in the quest for simple, understandable abstract models, the economists here have missed some important historical reasons for differences in wealth and productivity. Many increases in productivity have come at the cost of human misery. Much of the capital that propelled increases in GDP among many of the richer countries historically came from colonized or otherwise exploited countries, for example. The cotton boom of the early nineteenth century, which enriched the U.S. as a country, came in large part from harrowing increases in the productivity of enslaved persons. In that case, the incredible rise in GDP had a sharply negative effect on many of the residents of the United States. Are there stakes to this? Yes! A monomaniacal focus on productivity can lead to a trampling of the lives of the disadvantaged. If the state (pick a state) seized all of the antiquated small farms in its border, and successfully turned them into modern factory farms geared towards export, the GDP of that state would skyrocket, but the farmers (if unassisted) would be devastated. The Soviet Union massively increased its GDP and GDP per capita in the 1930s, but no one would want to live there. Part of that increase, in fact, was the poorest of the poor starving to death, another thing that boosts GDP numbers. I know you folks said you'd speak to income inequality in a future episode, and I'm glad you mentioned it. But I notice, in this episode and your episode on GDP, that you tend to bracket the exceptions and then treat them like they don't exist. Here, at least, that borders on negligence. [I certainly recognize that both the cotton boom and the Soviet "miracle" of the 1930s were deeply predicated on new mechanical technologies., But they were also predicated on vicious reorganizations of the labor force. See Sven Beckert's Empire of Cotton and Ronald Suny's The Soviet Experiment, respectively].

GDP is a measure of how quickly we are depleting our natural resources and transforming them into landfills.

Wow. You guys missed the most important points: industrial revolution, colonization and globalization. Industrial revolution lead to the boost in production that helped begin the growth of Western economies, many of these countries had colonies, which ensured availability of raw material, cheap labour and manipulable markets for the produced goods. Finally globalization ensured that the status quo of the developed vs developing countries is maintained via outsourcing labour to the latter

Can't tell if Adriene is really short...or Jacob is really tall... (Seriously, though, I'm loving the series so far. You're both great hosts!)

How many zimbabwean dollars for that ACDC belt ?

If some countries are poor and others rich, it is not just productivity that is key. I also think that rich countries' policies of exploiting and keeping poor countries in some dependence are also an explanation for this difference between rich and poor countries.

Yes everyone I'm sure they're condescending because they want 10 year olds to watch the show. No, they're condescending to make sure you understand the basics so you can understand the more complex things. If you don't like simplicity and effective teaching then go read some boring guide to economics. No one is forcing you to watch

They mentioned my country! GHANA. Am so happy! I did not know that we were known that much!!!

You two have become SIGNIFICANTLY better as the series has progressed. At first you seemed uncomfortable in front of the camera, but now you seem more natural. Really enjoying this and Astronomy this season.

Shout out to Mr. Clifford's AC/DC belt. Even us Econ educators know how to rock out!

your ability to break down economics for the average Joe and Jane to understand is top notch. You really need to create a course on trading stocks for the retail investors. Thanks for all this great content and information. Lastly get those likes up folks and share this video

Look! A clue! Domination and exploitation!

Adriane and Jacob aren't your econ professors and this isn't a university course. It's called "Crash Course" for a reason, it's a light hearted KZfaq series intended to appeal to a large audience who simply want to know more about the subject. It's great and all that everyone is so keen on giving writing tips, however, you're completely missing the point of the show. If this show isn't in depth enough for you, then go literally anywhere else. As an economics student myself, I think it's a great show and does an awesome job in connecting big ideas in economics. Keep up the good work Crash Course.

I have to watch this for school (online school) gosh darn Coronavirus

thank you to the patreon donators that allowed me to watch this

Why is it "socially unacceptable" to wear the same clothes in more than one episode? I honestly can't remember what I wore yesterday, and I don't have the time nor the inclination to care about or remember what you wear in each episode. Just wear what you want.

Maybe, in the way they put in this episode seemed like developing countries are poor only becouse their governaments were incopetent and corrupt. All history that lead to that dosen't count? All the others steps in the capitalism had some role in that, hadn't it? Like the mercantilism capitalism until now a finantial globalized capitalism. Its harder to the developing countries to try now to get industrialized and catch up with the ones that already have a stablished industry base. Sorry about the bed english. I hope i could explain what i was thinking.

Takes money to make money...

Great explanation, Adriene and Jacob! Thanks from Bangladesh!

I understand now... this entire series has been one giant subliminal advert to drive up demand for AC/DC belt buckles... well its damn well worked, I WANT ONE!

You have no idea how many videos I watched on this topic. So called experts over complicating it. These guys really killled it. I learned it right away. On the spot. Love their teaching style. Simple.

Love this! I regret not taking economics at university and this series has done such a great job

No need for a new blouse for every episode, but yes Mr. Clifford, there *is* a need for you to wear every other episode a different AC/DC belt.

I feel like history was over generalized in this video. I understand it’s a short video but colonization and slave trade history should be briefly mentioned when considering why Western countries increased their productivity.

This is my favorite series, I'm committed to the end.

Just discovered this series and watched all of them today!! Please make more videos soon!!

Their theatrics are amazing! They both deserve Oscars. 😆

*"Please pay, so you can watch for free"* - Love it.

I love Thought Café's graphics! Thought bubbles are always my favorite.

Thx Adriene for mentioning Switzerland and its cows :D You made my Swiss heart happy!

"We wouldn't judge you for re-wearing clothes. But we do judge you for making a comment about it, and we judge both of you for lots of other equally inane things" --half the comments

Can we have a little less negativity in the comments? I like the hosts and the show I think they are doing a great job.

I just love you guys. You people have made economics so easy and fun. Thanks

this video points out an incredibly important idea - communication jacking up effrctiveness of productivity. Not only it's important to have raw horsepower for productivity, but knowing what to produce and how to trade them is important too!

Besides a reference to Robert Mugabe, the episode seems to have overlooked the importance of property rights, contracts and political & financial institutions in productivity and wealth creation. If people don't have the proper incentives and protections it's hard to generate high GDP. Take a look at the book 'Why Nations Fail' by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson.

This is all good and well but fails to mention or consider the effects of colonization, wealth + resource extraction, and historic + predatory trade agreements that advantage certain countries over others. This is a significant contributor to ongoing political and economic instability in many regions.

y'all are doing great I feel like teens will understand this. you have to think about it it doesn't matter how they teach it or what kind of silly jokes that make as long as you learn the lesson that's all that matters. we look at different type of request courses at school and they helped us a lot so please continue to make them how they are now.

Am pleasantly surprised to see Singapore being featured here! As a Singaporean, I've heard wayyy too many times that Singapore is a part of China when I talk to people overseas. And it is true that Singaporeans are generally not very satisfied with our living conditions despite our wealth (i.e lack of beggars and homeless people, great infrastructure, impressive education system). We're just too sheltered to be able to empathise with the less fortunate and hence be grateful with whatever we have

An economist says its because of productivity. An economic hitman says its because rich countries invest much time and effort into ensuring poor countries stay poor.

When they say "economists", they are referring mostly to the mainstream ones (notably the neoclassical economists) whose research is financially supported by those who benefit from the propagation of a specific theory of value (notably Marginalism) and suppression of others. Many economic professors at universities and on media have been corrupted by the big money of big Capitalists, so that the students/audience are less exposed to the alternative theories that challenge the fundamental principles of Capitalism: www.theguardian.com/education/2012/may/21/heist-century-university-corruption 3:06 No mention of the portion for the employer's income? From the profit which the workers produced but the employer appropriates and distributes, by default, a certain amount (say 20$/hr) goes to the workers and another amount to other production costs ONLY IF there is enough left for the employer to take as his income. That extra value which the workers produce, is not included in the workers' pays. That is, the labor for which each worker receives 20 $/hr, is actually worth more than 20 $/hr. Paying the workers a wage which is LESS than the actual value of their labor that produces the surplus, is how the employers make their incomes.

That was mind blowing, one of the most essencial, versatile and life changing information i've ever had! Thank you, it goes beyong the Econ world and change how you think about your actions, goals and life. It makes me feel blessed by productivity for having a phone that allows me to get conscious about my surroundings, even as a country bumpkin.

Economist, Ravi Batra in Greenspan's Fraud, maintains the major driver of economic bubbles is first line workers real wages do not change directly with productivity gains (in either positive or negative sense). Interesting arguments for this are largely in Chapter 6 but the whole book is a good read.

A valiant attempt to address the whole subject of "wealth of nations" in a short webisode. Much of the reasoning seemed circular, though, and it comes to no real conclusion. Why are some countries richer? Because some countries are richer!

At 3:37 "the main reason why some COUNTIRES are rich" YOU MISSPELLED COUNTRIES!!!!

This is incredibly well done. If only actual classes in economics were like this instead of "right well, you've got to remember the standard answer for the definition of productivity for the exam in 6 months word for word or you'll drop 2 marks" -_-

great video, remind us why productivity is so important to increase the standard of life of a country with simple examples !

Me in episode #31: "didn't she wear that in episode 11?"

Who misses John green ?:(

I really feel like the answer "productivity" is simplistic. Productivity is the answer to the question "what makes different countries have different GDP per capita?", but if the question is why some countries are poor you can't only point out to the GDPpC. You have to explain why historically they didn't develop so fast, what they produce, why they don't have same technology, why they have been exploited of their resources, colonization, and so son. Also you should explain the difference between absolute GDPpC or the one rearranged according to the buying power of each country. Incompetent governments also often have a reason why they are there. Free international trade is often very beneficial for the rich countries that can buy natural resources from poor countries, but the developmentalist economic theory suggests that protecting the economy of a developing country can make it change what is produced. What I mean is that if a poor country only sells their natural resources and low level products and buys what it doesn't have from rich countries it will never change what it produces. But it's clear that to get richer a country must develop industries and later services. A way to do it is to protect internal manufacture sector and subsidies and tax the import of certain goods. A country cannot have the productivity of a rich country, and cannot reach it, if it doesn't develop. Develop what? Develop more productive goods, "higher level" industry. For example Malawi produces almost only tobacco, the western tobacco industry buys it, and Malawi buys with the money the goods they do not produce, which is a lot of goods. Like this Malawi is not developing any other production, no industry, no services, no technology. The free international trade keeps this type of countries pinned to their undeveloped status. For developing countries it would often be useful to protect their manufacture sector with taxes on certain types of imported goods and subsidies on certain internally produced goods.

I'm so glad you touched on the fact that resources ≠ a wealthy country, though I'm itching for Crash Course International Political Economy so we can talk about the resource curse and the effects of globalization on productivity...

Nice belt!

I'm really enjoying this series so far. I've learn't a LOT; definitely the best CC (for me) so far! I'm learning a lot from the comments as well...just have to skip over all the salty ones lol. Keep it up!

that joke in the beginning made me laugh, well done :)

What fosters productivity? Free market capitalism & strong property rights. When people are free of burdensome government regulations, they create and innovate, growing the economic pie and making everyone better off. Life is so much better today and literally billions have been lifted out of poverty in the last 30 years as countries loosened government control of their economies and unleashed private creativity.

yall r so adorkable. yall make an intro to capitalism more tolerable

why does John run a bakery? Clearly he would run a pizzeria.

Awsome show! It makes much easier and clearer to understand Macroeconomic

This episode reminds me of my 6th grade social studies class. Also, computers are still very useful for playing Oregon Trail.

When will Crash Course institute economics videos updated to 2019?

What about sweat shops? You have companies who are able to have workers who produce a tremendous amount of product, but their workers are being paid garbage.

Came here to learn economics.... but fell in love with this Adriene person!!

Thank you Crash Course!! :) Productivity is the KEY to success :)

90% of the comments are about his AC/DC belt ......that’s 2019 for ya😂

I always thought that Jacob Clifford's first name was Mr.

Thanks Crash Course you are so incredibly helpful!

Very informative and clear. Thankx!

"Socially unacceptable"... I don't think anyone cares about what you're wearing. I didn't even noticed you changed clothes between one episode and the next. I actually think it's frivolous.

Hold on...why on Earth would you need a different top for every episode? That's crazy talk! Who pays attention to what shirt you're wearing?

Great job guys, salutes from Brazil!

Love the shout outs for Singapore :)

The video boils down GDP inequality to one word: productivity. Next I'd like to see a video focusing on the real answer: exploitation. Also, in microeconomics, I'd like to learn how companies determine the price of their goods and services, and if there's an equation for a price that maximizes profit. Just a side note, if you're worried about the clothes you wear in these videos, my advice is to ignore any of the commenters on KZfaq who actually care. I don't come here for fashion notes.

i really find it interesting, really but i'm pretty sure i'm not absorbing the info. maybe it will be once i'm done with all episodes and watch it all a zillion times. T.T

That was superb to the point video. Thanks Team!😃

6:26 south of Salt Lake City, Utah. Recognized it immediately

Why this is wrong, and other reasons countries are poor/rich: Productivity in economic terms has very little to do with actual value. Prostitution and gambling can raise the economic fortunes of a place, but if you've ever lived in a city like Vegas or Atlantic City...the cost is great. Or for example, the financial crisis bundles or pyramid schemes or real estate speculation or making your country into a tax haven for wealthy corporations...all great economic decisions with regards to "increasing productivity" but net losses for humanity. Also, wages are considered a net loss with regards to economic productivity. How much of America's "great productivity" is the great corruption and inefficiency in the health care system or insurance industries? The problem with this productivity measure is that "value" is "monetary value." So an American pharmaceutical creates 400 times more value for one pill for pinworms because they charge 400 times as much as a company charges for the same pill anywhere in the world and in the US it's prescription (Albendazole, Wiki it) 12 other reasons countries are financially poor besides internal productivity: 1)No control over their countries resources/capital due to outside intervention/colonialism 2)Foreign Interventions/War/Chaos that have less to do with Economics (DRC, Afghanistan) 3)Historical exclusion/institutionalized racism (Haiti being embargoed by the US, Trump trying to repeal NAFTA, Venezuela sanctions) 4)One-sided trade deals due to like...armed intervention/bullying. (Gunboat diplomacy; Halliburton's and other US companies' contracts to rebuild Iraq; USAid money that effects policy and politics in Latin America) 5)One-sided trade deals due to predatory lending from foreign banks or the IMF/World Bank and the "spread your legs" economic policies attached. 6)Wanting to have control over your resources against the will of your powerful colonizers/neighbors (China in the Opium Wars, Iran/Guatemala's CIA coups, Kuwait undercutting OPEC in 1990, Venezuela under Chavez(which was mismanagement but also US isolating them)) 7)Economics of Scale (Big companies from established world powers have capital/power, so they can buy up, box out or change their governments' policies to succeed and beat competition...I mean like the East India Company had its own army) 8)Foreign investment. In Kyrgyzstan a lot of malls have been built recently. These put the means of "production" in the hands of an inefficient wealthy elite, undermine freedom/democracy, and remove power from middle class producers/small businesses in the name of greater production, makes prices higher for everything, and most of the money goes to investors from other countries. Also foreign investors (like Wal-Mart in Mexico) are a large cause of corruption. 9)Lack of integration with the global economy: (For example, Pacific Island paradises might have tons of food and a very high "standard of living" but no cash if they haven't turned their island into a plantation "export economy") 10)Lack of stability: Kyrgyzstan has had 2 revolutions, which scared money away, even though the revolutions were about taking corrupt officials who were mismanaging the country out of power and thus increased local economic efficiency, freedom, and quality of life. 11)The deck is stacked: 90% of the countries in the world are former colonies. Which means their infrastructure, their power structures, their means of production were structured at one point for wealth extraction rather than building. It also means that most of the capital in the world has been consolidated in the hands of these global empires. Let's face it: MacDonald's may have had some innovative ideas and some good burgers 50 years ago. But 95% of the kiosks in Mexico have better food. But MacDonald's has capital and is from a country with capital and they have much less, so MacDonald's is everywhere. 12)Global Aid which undercuts local food, clothing, banking, and infrastructure companies and their productivity. 10 Other reasons countries are rich besides actual productivity: 1)Extraction of Wealth from other Countries (Belgium, Netherlands, UK, US, Spain, Russia, France as empires): 2)Tariffs that keep out competition (EU...ex: free to send money into the EU, lots of fees to send money out) or Subsidies/Favoritism for Native industries (Airbus and Boeing scandals, US farmers) 3)A lack of morals (Pollution and corruption are productive and work to keep costs down...for a while! Monopolies and extortion increase "production" as an economic number greatly, at least for a while; Singapore got rich on opium initially, just like Americans and Portuguese and the English and Arabs before them got rich off the slave trade) 4)Conquest of Productive Land/Resources 5)Ambition/Greed as Values. American individualism is more suited to wealth creation than Guatemalan communal values or Native American respect for nature. (Per capita Ayn Rand fans) 6)The ability to reduce the world into numeric values and ignore all other values as a way of thinking (per capita economists). 7)Outsourcing/Tax Havens/Lawyers Et al 8)How much financial capital you have to start with (How rich your daddy was) 9)Security/how likely you are to get invaded (Imagine if France didn't have to worry about building the Maginot Line what else they could have built instead) 10)Slavery/Low Wages/Low levels of workers' rights/power. Intellectual property laws/patent laws can also be mentioned on both sides here, as well as trade policies/agreements in general. Spoilers: They protect powerful companies and powerful countries, not small countries and little people. If you live in SoCal, being a content creator is very lucrative and prestigious. Not so much in Central Asia, and many sites block their sites entirely. Why? Because rich people in California are more interested in paying you to hear what you have to say. And because of outdated international media laws that don't recognize the internet as a thing. These oversimplifications are more than just dangerous; they gloss over the real historical reasons for wealth accumulation and the way things are and actually how they continue to work today. Also thank you to Crash Course History on Haitian revolutions for giving me the impetus to complicate things.

The guy sometimes sounds like he wants to win a contest of who can speak the fastest (as a non english speaking person, this is quite annoying). Besides that, this is great !

Good to hear that there will be an episode on income inequality. I wonder if 'The Spirit Level' will be mentioned, a book which shows how inequality hurts everyone, rich and poor.

I love Crash Course and I’ve learned a lot more from it then in my 18 years in school so far so it’s sad that a lot of people (here at least) would laugh if you reference this as a source (though, it’s totally understandable for a research paper)

Skipping the complex difficulties like racial and social stereotypes is exactly the difference between these two and John. He at least tried to tackle the social complexity and it's interaction with history, etc. They just skip it. Sigh.

I will tell you right now why some countries are poor and others rich... : The poor countries have corrupt governments The rich countries have corrupt governments TOO! Because the rich countries like America, West Europe have been stealing and they still stealing today from the "poor" countries...And have something to do with history too...so you guys are right with almost of the things you are saying in the video, but you forgot to say about main thing: STEALING. You think America have all that wealth from productivity more than from stealing? Think of what American companies and army been doing around the world...THINK!

These videos are great, Thank you so much!!!

Love Clifford's belt buckle 😄

Shoutout to all the Bengalis watching this video (hope its not just me)

This was fantastic. They could have mentioned colonialism though.

I know that you are summarising the points quite a lot, but there is a nice work by Paul Collier, "The Bottom Billion". In there he boils down the development traps to four: - Internal conflicts, like civil wars etc. - Natural resources; if the country has rich natural resources they generally don't tend to produce other stuff. - Geography; if the country is surrounded with bad neighbours her trade is gravely suffers. - Bad Governance.

Some notes if anyone needs em! -GDP per capita (GDP divided by its population) determines how wealthy a country is -The UN’s Human Development Index (HDI) measures life expectancy, literacy, education, and quality of life → shows that countries with higher GDP per capita have far less infant mortality, poverty, and preventable diseases -Some people say that it is a country’s natural resources or management that determines it’s wealth, but what about England.. -Many economists argue productivity determines a country’s wealth, because the more workers are able to produce per hour, the more they can make per hour -Factors of production = land (includes all natural resources), labor, capital (machines, factories, infrastructure, human capital (education, knowledge, skills) -Organization of effective is often called Technology = the sum of total knowledge and information that society has acquired concerning the use of it’s resources to produce goods and services) -Connectivity = productivity

Step 1.Type in google "countries by average IQ" Step 2.Check images. Step 3.Look at any image that shows the map of the whole earth. Makes you think.

Explaining why some countries are poor and others rich and not even mentioning colonialism or neocolonialism isn't just turning an ideological blind eye to history, it's completely incorrect. This episode implies that the West got on top through merely improving their productivity, instead of murder, plunder, slavery and the sucking dry of colonies whilst prohibiting the start of local production. And it ignores the economical stranglehold the West has on (parts of) the rest nowadays. What happened to the nuanced image Crash Course used to provide in series as World History? I was hoping this could be a decent, non-ideological introduction to economy. But apparently capitalist economy can only be explained in a "neutral" way by ignoring the horrors that were necessary to begin it. I hope this changes a bit in future episodes!

Hey, when is the next episodes of this series coming? Is it coming? I love this series.

I love your series. I am taking in one video per day.