www.success-and-culture.net The purpose of this site is to try and get the world to start dealing with the interaction between culture and success in a mature and intelligent manner. Poll: Do you believe culture influences success? Yes 67.03% No 17.5% Uncertain 15.3% - Newest Articles - Per Capita Income Around the World Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. Hind Swaraj, by M.K. Gandhi While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. Civilization and Success The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. - Categories - Civilization and Success Culture is to the group what personality is to the individual. Civilization is to the group what enlightenment is to the individual. By the Numbers A careful examination of the numbers is necessary to understand the relationship between success and culture. Third World and the Underclass The Third World is where the relationship between success and culture is revealed in the most brutal manner. Politics and Success The central political issue of our time is whether or not culture influences success. - All Articles - Per Capita Income Around the World Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. Hind Swaraj, by M.K. Gandhi While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. Civilization and Success The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. Fundamentals of Prosperity This 1920 work by Roger Babson is a classic with in its genre. It promotes the traditional, pre-1960s explanation for the connection between success and culture. Zimbabwe: the World's Largest Test Tube Current events in Zimbabwe are giving us an unprecedented opportunity to measure and judge the effect of white settlement and colonization in Africa. US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion Average US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion. Are Calvinists Predestined to Succeed? Max Weber's claim that Protestantism is more conducive to success than Catholicism and that Calvinism is in particular more successful is widely repeated and rarely examined. Wealth and the Recogniton of Culture We need to recognize that culture is the personality of a group or race and we must see culture and having seen it, make it a work of art. The Recipient Class The moral justification for welfare is supposed to be that we are temporarily helping out our fellow man through a rough stretch of road or helping the disabled permanently. If it is to become a system for continually transferring wealth from one group to another the people behind this change owe us an explanation. Culturalism The great taboo of our age is not speaking about race, but speaking about culture. Bourgeois Bourgeoisie is more than just a term of abuse used by the Left, it refers to a real people who led real lives. Selections from the Federal Outlook Selections from a 1960's Rhodesian newspaper. How Africa Underdeveloped Africa Africa is the poorest place in the world. Why? Will Famine Come to Zimbabwe? The end of commercial farming in Zimbabwe could plunge the country into famine. The Tragedy of the Zimbabwe Commons Communally owned property always has and always will suffer from the 'tragedy of the commons' problem. Band Aid Africa recieves $15 billion a year in aid. Is it helping? Civilization Culture is to the group what personality is to the individual. Civilization is to the group what enlightenment is to the individual. All groups have cultures, but not all cultures are civilized. If all cultures were civilized than the term would have no descriptive quality. Civilization does have a descriptive quality and it is something worth achieving and defending. Per Capita Income Around the World Per capita income figures for the countries and regions of the world. Hind Swaraj, by M.K. Gandhi While rarely read this is Gandhi's most important written work. Civilization and Success The traditional explanation for the noticeable differences in income across cultures was to say that they differed in their level of civilization. Fundamentals of Prosperity This 1920 work by Roger Babson is a classic with in its genre. It promotes the traditional, pre-1960s explanation for the connection between success and culture. US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion Average US Incomes by Race, Ethnicity and Religion. Wealth and the Recognition of Culture We need to recognize that culture is the personality of a group or race and we must see culture and having seen it, make it a work of art. The Recipient Class The moral justification for welfare is supposed to be that we are temporarily helping out our fellow man through a rough stretch of road or helping the disabled permanently. If it is to become a system for continually transferring wealth from one group to another the people behind this change owe us an explanation. Culturalism The great taboo of our age is not speaking about race, but speaking about culture.

Most of the per capita income figures in these tables are from the World Bank and are for 2003. Where figures were unavailable from the World Bank the per capita income figures are from the CIA Fact Book.

Most listings of per capita income figures tend to be the same because they are usually based on the same information provided by the government of that country. There is little research done on this topic beside collecting together government provided information. There are two common ways of presenting per capita income data. One way is to adjust for the cost of living in each country. This is called the PPP method which stands for Purchasing Power Parity. Most of the per capita income figures thrown around are PPP figures whether or not that is stated. The second method is called the Atlas method. These figures are adjusted for currency values and inflation according to various schemes. Since most people use PPP figures I use them also so that I won't confuse anyone by using numbers different from what they are used to seeing. The two numbers can vary by a great deal. China's PPP figure is $4,990, the 118th highest in the world. It's Atlas figure is $1,100, the 133th highest in the world. I would imagine that the accuracy of the PPP method would vary with the degree to which each countries cost of living was accurately estimated by the researchers. The most common method for calculating with the PPP method is to use the USA as the base for comparing the price of a basket of goods and when this is done the USA's figures are the same for both PPP and Atlas. In these data tables the World Bank is using a more complicated scheme of its own devising called ICP and here the PPP and Atlas figures for the USA differ by $110.

For some reason the World Bank does not give figures for certain countries, though they do rank these countries. I don't know how the World Bank can rank Bermuda as having the second highest per capita income without knowing what their per capita income is, but that is the way the data is presented. So what I have done is written N/A for every country for which World Bank does not have an estimate. The CIA Fact Book figures are PPP figures and so I included those after the N/A in the PPP section for those countries that the CIA Fact Book covered but the World Bank did not.

The more commonly used PPP figures may be the best because they tend to lower the results for the richest countries and raise the results for the poorest. This is useful because economic activity in poor countries is understated due to alternatives to purchased goods and services. When a farmer eats food he grew himself it does not show up in the statistics. When someone repairs their own car or home it also does not show up in the statistics. The same goes for most bartered trade. If someone fixes his neighbor's car in exchange for some vegetables from his neighbor's garden none of this will show up in the statistics. These types of activities occur much more often in the poor countries of the world. I live in America and have never successfully repaired my own car. In much of the Third World owning and operating a car is synonymous with repairing it yourself. One often hears about how vast millions of people in Africa have to survive on some tiny amount such as $1 a day. This is not true. If a farmer in Africa only eats the food he grew himself than this shows up in the statistics as having survived on zero dollars a day. If a farmer eats food he grew himself and then goes to Starbucks once a year and gets a cup of coffee then the statistics will say that he survived on $1.40 a year. That is absurd. There is also the work done by housewives. None of this shows up in the statistics which means that countries with more wives at home have their per capita income figures lowered compared to countries with more wives in the workplace. The USA has one of the smallest proportion of housewives in the world and has one of the highest per capita income figures.

There is also the odd case of Luxembourg. I am sure that this a fine little country, but the average income in Luxembourg is *not* $54,430 a year. Luxembourg is a small country of less than 500,000 people with very favorable banking laws. Each workday very large numbers of Belgians and Germans commute to Luxembourg to work in the financial industries located there for legal reasons. The labor these commuters perform adds to the size of Luxembourg's economy, but these commuters do not add to the size of Luxembourg's population. So when this tiny country's economic output is divided by its population the figures come out far too high. Other tiny countries with favorable banking laws such as Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, and Lichtenstein may have similar distortions in their figures. Tiny tax havens such as Monaco and San Marino are in the same category. Rich people don't live in Monaco, their money lives there.

There is also the issue of terminology. Originally experts talked about per capita Gross National Product or GNP. This term has stuck in the public's mind. Then the experts decided that Gross Domestic Product was more accurate. GDP is calculated slightly differently and produces slightly diferrent figures. Now the fashion is Gross National Income, or GNI. The experts have decided that this is best and it also is calculated slightly differently and produces slightly different figures. The figures on this page are per capita GNI figures because that is how things are done now. I don't want my readers to be out of fashion.

How accurate are these figures? There are many reasons to criticize these figures, but when it is all said and done I would rather have the income of the average Luxembourgian than the income of the average Ethiopian.