What Makes a Country ‘Rich’ or ‘Poor’?

Imagine two kids who both want to buy toys. One kid has a piggy bank and saves up every week, while the other spends all their allowance on candy. Over time, one kid can afford more toys, that’s like how countries become rich or poor. A country is rich if it has lots of money or goods, and poor if it doesn’t. Countries can get richer by growing strong industries, trading with others, or learning new skills.

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Examples

  1. A farmer sells apples at the market but doesn’t save any money for next year
  2. A factory makes watches that people from all over buy
  3. A country borrows a lot of money to build roads, but then can't pay it back

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Categories: Economics · Wealth· Poverty· Economic Development · Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.