14.6. The Less-Developed Countries (ldCs)

In the Delta region of lower Egypt, many people make their living from cultivating less than one acre of land per person. The per-capita income of the average Egyptian, as a percent of GNP, is $600. When the land ceases to provide enough for the peo­ple, they migrate to the cities. In Cairo, the largest of the African and Middle Eastern cities, people crowd the wide side­walks almost shoulder to shoulder. Home, to the majority of families, could mean two small rooms for four or five people. These families would be consid­ered fortunate. For many people, having meat once a week is a luxury.

But Egypt is not unique. In fact, the Egyptians are better off than hundreds of millions who live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Most of the coun­tries on these continents are less-developed coun­tries or LDCs. For instance, in Mali GNP per capita is about $270 per year, and the rate of illiteracy is 90 percent. The income per person in Bangladesh is even lower than in Mali. Many of the villages in LDCs are still without electricity. Septic tanks or sewer systems do not exist in most villages. Nearly half a million people in Africa died of hunger during the 1970s. At present more than 168 million people go to sleep hungry every night.

Certainly the LDCs are different from each other in many ways. They have different languages, religions, traditions, and cultures. They are similar, however, in that they all face a common problem, perhaps a crisis. Their people need and expect more than their slowly developing economies have been able to deliver. For generations their traditional economies satisfied their basic needs at the subsistence level, producing just enough food and shelter for survival. The people endured floods, droughts, disease, and malnutrition Few were fully aware that alternatives were possible.

The communications revolution of the past two decades has put the vast populations of the less-developed countries in touch with the rest of the world. With small, battery-operated transistor radios, they can now listen to a variety of pro­grams from Washington, London, Moscow, Beijing and other world capitals. Satellite television trans­missions can be received anywhere, and movies are now distributed globally.

Expectations of a better life have been rising rapidly. By Western standards, these expectations are min-' mal and modest. But why have the econmies of these countries not been able to fulfill the expecta­tions? The answers vary from country to country.

In some countries, because of improved sanitary conditions and vaccinations, the population has been growing at a faster rate than the rate of food produc­tion. For example, the 1960s sub-Saharan Africa was self-sufficient. Since then population growth has been greater than food production. If trends continue another 30 years, the "food deficit" will be equal to all the grain grown in the United States in a typical year.

Eager to obtain money for the Purchase of modern equipment, a few countries have shifted large areas of cultivated land from edible crops to cash crops such as coffee, tea, cotton, and tobacco. The result has been a decline in food production.

In some cases an effective market mechanism might have helped the situation. Ordinarily, what people demand through their buying causes people with capital, when free to do so, to invest their money to meet that demand. After all, producers are in the business to sell and to make a profit, and if people are unwilling to buy what producers provide the producers will go out of business. When governments control the decisions of Production and distri­bution, however, the small available capital might not be channeled to where it is most in demand.

Impatience and frustration can lead to political tur­moil and to the overthrow of governments If new leaders promise more Goods and services and do not deliver, radicalism and violence can spread For example, Rodrigo Carazo Odio, former president of Costa Rica, stated that "90 percent of Central America's problems are economic," and "Central Americans believe in freedom and democracy but they may be driven to despair." Certainly, political problems in Somalia and Ethiopia have contributed to hunger and famine in those countries in recent years.