Why are some countries rich and others poor? Why are some people poor and others rich?
Many minds of mankind are trying to discover the origins of wealth and poverty. And in accordance with their understanding of these concepts, they advise us different ways to achieve the first and avoid the second ...
Business coach and popular lecturer Natalia Grace in her book Grace's Laws also tried to answer these eternal questions. She believes that there is a Law of Genetic Poverty, which is the real cause of human poverty.
We bring to your attention 4 causes of poverty, in which the realities of our life are unmistakably guessed.
Factors of genetic poverty
mentality
As children, we often jumped on the couch at a classmate's house, while there were no adults. We were very pleased with the springs, in some places very close to the surface; delighted with the dust that flew in clubs from the sofa from our jumps. When, twenty years later, I went to visit my childhood friend, I was horrified to see in the corner the same sofa on which we jumped when we were schoolgirls.
As far as I could remember, he had not changed much, but now I was struck by the poverty and squalor of the situation. I mentally calculated how much it could cost to buy a new sofa, replace greasy chairs, a mirror broken and sealed with a chocolate wrapper. While we were talking, in my imagination I was whitewashing the ceiling and changing the wallpaper.
I wanted to wash the windows that were infested with flies, throw out the sticks and cardboard sticking out from under the sofa, a broken flower pot tied with a stocking. “What if money is bad?” - I thought ... But the brain resisted and offered me to buy at least an inexpensive adhesive film in the color of the tree and paste over the table with it. Everywhere I looked, my eyes stumbled upon some kind of breakage, dirt, stains and debris.
My brain suddenly said to me: “Why do you think there is always dirt next to poverty?” I'm asking you the same question now.
Even if you replace the word "always" with "almost always" or "often", it does not make it easier. Dirt is not a manifestation of lack of money, but of mentality. Think about it: dirt is a manifestation of the corresponding mentality. And since dirt and poverty are neighbors, then poverty is a kind of mentality.
Poverty is in an unwashed head.
Philistinism
At school, I had an amazing literature teacher - Tamara Grigorievna, an extraordinary mind, a very insightful woman. She somehow dropped a phrase that I remembered for the rest of my life. Someone asked her what philistinism meant, and she replied: “Petishism means drinking from an old shabby mug when a new one is in the sideboard.”
This is the custom in many Russian homes: money is set aside for a rainy day, a new cup is in the sideboard on a white day, only a white day rarely comes, and all life is filled with black.
Who lives in anticipation of the future, for that it never comes. And then I realized this: it's a shame to be poor, it's a shame to be dirty. It is a shame to have a devastation in your head, which inevitably affects both the home and the mentality of children.
Life expectancy of the future leads to devastation.
Cinderella Complex
I know a woman who has been saving money for more than twenty years to buy a dacha. She raised two daughters alone. The girls lived from hand to mouth, on nothing but porridge, and the eldest of them told me how ashamed she was to go out into the yard in old corduroy trousers with patched knees.
The girl grew, and every year her trousers magically grew. Centimeter by centimeter, the fabric tucked up at the bottom unfolded. It was not as faded as the rest of the leg, and this betrayed beggarly tricks. Apparently, this is where the expression came from: "The need for inventions is cunning."
It is not worth telling that the system in the state does not allow you to earn enough. I do not scold the system, but rot in the brain. For the same money, you can look decent or beggarly. When the mother finally bought the dacha, both grown-up daughters had not the slightest interest in this dacha, but endlessly reproached their mother for not teaching them what it means to be a woman.
The girls have a Cinderella complex. They, accustomed to seeing worn chairs and old dishes, shabby towels and seven-year-old coats, later, becoming adults, were afraid to spend money on themselves.
Every time they bought something, their mood deteriorated: they seemed to feel unworthy of new good things. This, my friends, is called in two words: genetic poverty. She is already in the mind, in the cells, in the blood, in the bones.
Fear of spending money on yourself makes you a beggar.
subconscious programming
Children who see shabby corners are unconsciously programmed for poverty. Already in adolescence, they begin to realize its severity. Even Anton Pavlovich Chekhov noted that shabby walls and dirty corridors have a bad effect on a student's ability to learn.
Hello my dear readers and guests of the blog! Have you ever wondered why some people are lucky with money, while others are not. Why are some people rich and others poor? Where does this inequality come from? Usually, attitudes towards poverty are laid down in a child in childhood. He observes the behavior of parents and listens to their opinion. Some people are convinced that they cannot earn much money, that they can get it either by criminal means or by hard work. They do not like everything, everything is seen as deceit and fraud. Even if they improve the standard of living by providing everything they need, they will find a way to find a flaw and complain again.
For example, when asked by a lonely young man why he does not marry, he replies that women only need wealthy men with a good car. If you give it to him, then after a while he will talk about poor work and housing. In this case, a person simply does not want to work, achieve something in life and get out of the financial hole.
Why are some people rich and others poor?
To solve problems with money and stop being a beggar, you need to change your attitude to life. Stop waiting for miracles and start creating them yourself. You should start right now, from this moment, otherwise it will be too late later.
You should not look for easy ways to get money and make a quick profit, as a rule, this entails only one trouble. For example, playing in a casino, selling prohibited goods, etc. It's a slippery slope.
In life, there is no universal way how to get rich. Everyone comes to this on their own. One of the most important conditions for a successful life is to find a business that you would like to do and focus on it. It's so nice to work on what you like and earn money from it. Of course, it's easy to say this, there are few people who know what they want and how to achieve it.
Wealthy people, unlike the poor, are constantly in a state of mental stress. They make sure that the system they have created functions normally. People with the psychology of poverty are willing to work on the principle of "work and forget."
If a person does not have the desire to open his own business, this does not mean that he will be a poor loser. There are many excellent people in their profession who reach impressive heights in their careers, and there are plenty of examples of business failures. The most important thing in a person is the desire to earn money, and the desire to work.
The main signs of the psychology of poverty
In order to determine what type of consciousness you belong to, analyze your attitude to life and determine if you have the following signs of poor thinking:
- greed and covetousness
Money is to be earned, not saved. It is surprising that the majority of young people are engaged in running around the authorities, seeking a meager reduction in utility bills, looking for cheaper things. In the time they spend queuing and chasing cheap groceries, they could not make much more money than they saved. Finances do not like to be kept, stockpiled and carefully saved. They love freedom and reasonable attitude. It will be much more productive to take them to the bank or invest in some business than to keep them at home in a stocking.
- feeling sorry for oneself
All people experience certain difficulties, few people are now easy. If you think that you are the most unhappy, and it is the hardest for you compared to others, then this is an erroneous opinion. Self-pity leads to selfishness, selfishness and self-destruction. Pull yourself together, stop harassing friends and relatives, believe me, they live no easier than yours.
- work for money
If you go to work only for the sake of money, then this is the wrong approach to gaining financial well-being. Aversion to work causes a state of depression and hopelessness. If you are waiting for Friday evening with pleasure, and with fear of Monday morning, then think about changing your place of work. Currently, employers welcome enterprising workers, and if you try to sit out from call to call and go home faster, then this is not particularly welcomed by the authorities.
- success and financial well-being are synonyms
These are not always synonyms, of course, there is truth in this, however, there are any number of examples when people, being rich, are very unhappy. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't strive for it. To achieve it, you need to work, engage in self-education and avoid stagnation.
- Difficulties in planning expenses
If you spend more than you get, you fit into, then you definitely need to do something about it. Start by planning your expenses. There are many techniques that allow you not to spend too much and even save a certain amount for a rainy day. Then you can think about looking for additional income or a higher paying job.
- envy and comparison
Stop envying others, considering them more successful. If you feel your own failure, then act to improve the quality of life. Perhaps, at the time when they were earning money, you were resting and living measured and calm.
- constant whining and complaining about life
Usually people who love take the position of a victim. They like it when they are sorry, they try to help. They are in the center of attention and care. However, if you try to correct the situation, help them, then having received what they want, they will find flaws in this as well. Don't be afraid to experiment. It's okay if you don't succeed the first time, you need to fight to the victory. Remember the legendary group "The Beatles", they turned to 20 recording studios and they were refused everywhere. However, they did not give up and they were lucky, some small company drew attention to them, which later brought them great success and fame.
- focus only on your problems
This property is for those who constantly feel sorry for themselves. People are so focused on their own problems that they are not interested in anything else. They withdraw into themselves, talk to few people, considering others to be universal evil. They are afraid to decide to do something and expect a miracle from life. To gain financial well-being, it is necessary to communicate with other people, delve into the affairs of the family and relatives. They need you, and you need them.
- dissatisfaction with the leaders
This is a favorite way to shift all your problems onto someone else, the government, bosses, etc. They believe that life is better somewhere else, and that someone else is to blame for being poor and unhappy. Stop criticizing because you will be annoyed and offended, nothing will change. Get busy and make the most of your time.
- the desire to get everything in an instant
Reach gradually. In life, it rarely happens that wealth falls on your head in an instant. To achieve it, you need to work hard and constantly think about how to extract additional profit. For those who want everything and immediately open only one way - criminal. But he hasn't done anyone any good yet.
Three types of human thinking
Among people according to the type of thinking can be divided into three types:
- victims
These are personalities of the whining type, who are always unlucky in everything. They can only criticize, but they themselves are afraid to do or decide anything. They prefer to work for the owner in order to bear less responsibility.
- organizers
People who clearly imagine the schemes of how to make money. Usually they know a lot and work hard. They are constantly in a state of nervous tension and bear great responsibility. They have an active life position and they believe that success in life can be achieved only through their work. They often employ people with a victim-like attitude.
- lucky ones
These individuals perceive life as it is. They complain little and do not work until they lose their pulse. They are optimistic about the future and are happy with what they have. Often they are lucky in life, and they achieve a lot. This is the last stage in the development of the personality, when it has already passed the stage of the victim and the owner. Such people are usually rich, successful, but at the same time kind and not offended by life.
Change your attitude to the process of making money. The poor man's reasoning is to go and earn the right amount. And the reasoning of the rich is aimed at coming up with a methodology for how to get a stable income. At the same time, the poor begin to work for such people according to a scheme invented by them.
Now you know why some people are rich and others are poor. The psychology of poverty is quite simple. It all depends on your mindset and attitude. Be rich! Until we meet again!
Poverty negatively affects the human psyche and its ability to plan and make the right decisions.
1. Lack of money, time, food, and other means causes the mind of poor people to focus on a narrow range of problems, preventing a larger "look" at life's prospects.
2. Poor people get used to thinking only about the momentary and do not plan expenses, do not build their life strategy. 
3. Borrowing money to buy an expensive phone or a branded bag is a sign of a poor person. A rich (or potentially rich) person only takes out a loan to grow their business or invest in education. 
4. The poor are afraid to give their all to achieve their goals. They think that once you open your own business, there will be no personal time left at all.
5. Aimed at poverty, people constantly feel sorry for themselves: that they got married or did not get married, that they were born a woman because men are paid more, that they are not slim enough to work in a prestigious position, etc. They believe that if something more had been given to them from birth, then their life would have turned out differently. 
6. The inability to make plans, to think about what else you can get besides money, does not contribute to enrichment. A poor person tries to get a job where they pay more, and a potentially rich person tries to get a job where they can learn something and where there are prospects for the future.
7. Greed. This tendency must be overcome first. Only at first glance it is useful for increasing wealth. In fact, total savings on trifles is not a sign of thrift, but of stupidity. Buying cheap and low-quality goods, a person loses more than he gains. No wonder they say that a miser pays twice. When hiring staff, the greedy person pays little, and as a result, all the valuable employees who can lead the company to prosperity leave. 
A team of psychologists led by Anuj Shah of the University of Chicago conducted an experiment in which volunteers around the age of 25, divided into two groups - "poor" and "rich" - were asked to play three games.
They were given a certain number of attempts to correctly guess the answer, and they could also take an additional attempt if they were not enough. During the games, the “poor” spent a lot of time before each time they made their choice. They also expended more attempts on tasks, taking them on credit. The "rich" showed a good game, they practically did not take attempts for the correct answer. The “poor” simply “driven” themselves into the position of losers when they actively “borrowed” all new attempts to guess the right answer. 
According to scientists, this test showed that the lack of funds creates a tendency to borrow the necessary resource without thinking through the costs and benefits of a life strategy. In their opinion, it is this “effect” that is behind the popularity of short-term, high-interest loans among the poor.
The results of the study found that, for example, very poor people often refuse to treat their illnesses, paying more attention to the price of medical services and not thinking about their health, which, in fact, is a higher priority in life.
Many minds of mankind try to discover origins of wealth and poverty. And in accordance with their understanding of these concepts, they advise us different ways to achieve the first and avoid the second ...
Business coach and popular lecturer Natalia Grace in her book Grace's Laws also tried to answer these eternal questions. She believes there is Law of Genetic Poverty which is the real cause of human poverty.
We bring to your attention 4 causes of poverty, in which the realities of our life are unmistakably guessed.
Factors of genetic poverty
- mentality
As children, we often jumped on the couch at a classmate's house, while there were no adults. We were very pleased with the springs, in some places very close to the surface; delighted with the dust that flew in clubs from the sofa from our jumps. When, twenty years later, I went to visit my childhood friend, I was horrified to see in the corner the same sofa on which we jumped when we were schoolgirls.As far as I could remember, he had not changed much, but now I was struck by the poverty and squalor of the situation. I mentally calculated how much it could cost to buy a new sofa, replace greasy chairs, a mirror broken and sealed with a chocolate wrapper. While we were talking, in my imagination I was whitewashing the ceiling and changing the wallpaper.
I wanted to wash the windows that were infested with flies, throw out the sticks and cardboard sticking out from under the sofa, a broken flower pot tied with a stocking. " What if money is bad?"- I thought ... But the brain resisted and offered me to buy at least an inexpensive adhesive film in the color of wood and paste over the table with it. Everywhere I looked, my eyes stumbled upon some kind of breakage, dirt, stains and debris.
My brain suddenly said to me: Why do you think there is always dirt next to poverty?"Now I'm asking you the same question.
Even if you replace the word "always" with "almost always" or "often", it does not make it easier. Dirt is not a manifestation of lack of money, but of mentality. Think about it: dirt is a manifestation of the corresponding mentality. And since dirt and poverty are neighbors, then poverty is a kind of mentality.
Poverty is in an unwashed head.
- Philistinism
At school, I had an amazing literature teacher - Tamara Grigorievna, an extraordinary mind, a very insightful woman. She somehow dropped a phrase that I remembered for the rest of my life. Someone asked her what philistinism meant, and she replied: “ Philistinism means drinking from an old shabby mug when a new one is in the sideboard.».This is the custom in many Russian homes: money is set aside for a rainy day, a new cup is in the sideboard on a white day, only a white day rarely comes, and all life is filled with black.
Who lives in anticipation of the future, for that it never comes. And then I realized this: it's a shame to be poor, it's a shame to be dirty. It is a shame to have a devastation in your head, which inevitably affects both the home and the mentality of children.
Life expectancy of the future leads to devastation.
- Cinderella Complex
I know a woman who has been saving money for more than twenty years to buy a dacha. She raised two daughters alone. The girls lived from hand to mouth, on nothing but porridge, and the eldest of them told me how ashamed she was to go out into the yard in old corduroy trousers with patched knees.The girl grew, and every year her trousers magically grew. Centimeter by centimeter, the fabric tucked up at the bottom unfolded. It was not as faded as the rest of the leg, and this betrayed beggarly tricks. Apparently, this is where the expression comes from: Need for inventions is cunning».
It is not worth telling that the system in the state does not allow you to earn enough. I do not scold the system, but rot in the brain. For the same money, you can look decent or beggarly. When the mother finally bought the dacha, both grown-up daughters had not the slightest interest in this dacha, but endlessly reproached their mother for not teaching them what it means to be a woman.
The girls have a Cinderella complex. They, accustomed to seeing worn chairs and old dishes, shabby towels and seven-year-old coats, later, becoming adults, were afraid to spend money on themselves.
Every time they bought something, their mood deteriorated: they seemed to feel unworthy of new good things. This, my friends, is called in two words: genetic poverty. She is already in the mind, in the cells, in the blood, in the bones.
Fear of spending money on yourself makes you a beggar.
- subconscious programming
Children who see shabby corners are unconsciously programmed for poverty. Already in adolescence, they begin to realize its severity. Even Anton Pavlovich Chekhov noted that shabby walls and dirty corridors have a bad effect on a student's ability to learn.Dirt and poverty suppress a person, the habitual appearance of a miserable environment programs to be a loser. You could object to me that hatred of poverty stimulates some people to develop and earn money, but I will answer you that a lot more people break down under the unbearable burden of poverty.
About Daron Acimoglu and James F. Robinson's book Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor?
The average American is seven times richer than the average Mexican, ten times richer than the average Central American or Russian, and forty times richer than the average Malian, Ethiopian, or Sierra Leone. This is also true for a group of rich developed countries in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan.
Citizens in wealthy countries are healthier, educated, and live longer. They have access to things that people in poor countries can only dream of, from vacations to career opportunities. The inhabitants of rich countries drive on good roads, they have electricity, sewerage and running water.
But, most importantly, the authorities of such countries do not commit arbitrariness, do not arrest citizens who disagree with their policies, do not fool them with false propaganda. On the contrary, officials there feel like they are hired and controlled by managers whose duty is to provide services to the population: education, health care, law and order. Citizens of such countries participate in fair elections and decide which party or coalition will conduct domestic and foreign policy.
As scientists have established, the reason for the differences in the standard of living of peoples is that the political and economic systems of rich and poor countries create completely different incentives for people. In the poor, those in power forcefully collect tribute from ordinary citizens and entrepreneurs, discouraging their desire to create new things and organize business, depriving them of funds for development. It is dominated by state corporations and monopolies owned by oligarchs close to power.
In rich countries, on the contrary, there is a developed political and economic competition, which serves as the engine of progress. There are incentives to invent, create high-performance technologies and useful products. There, in fact, private property rights are guaranteed. These economic and political rules of existence (institutions) not only ensure the development and growth of the standard of living, but, most importantly, are supported by the authorities and society.
Obviously, the formation of the economic system, its institutions depends on the political regime that prevails in the country. So in the USSR, where entrepreneurship was punishable by a prison term, a market economy was simply impossible. Whether citizens can really control politicians and officials, influence the decisions they make depends not so much on the text of the Constitution (the Stalinist Constitution was very democratic, which did not prevent millions of citizens from being sent to camps and exile), but on the practice of applying constitutional norms, on customs and level of trust in society. In poor countries, politicians can use with impunity the power entrusted to them by society (or even usurped by them) for their own enrichment and the pursuit of policies that are beneficial only to them, but not at all beneficial to voters. And citizens in these countries, as a rule, are not able to change the situation. This is the main reason for their poverty.
It is also important how power is actually distributed in society, what are the possibilities of various groups to set common goals and achieve their implementation. Or, on the contrary, how those in power are able to suppress and limit the interests of opposing groups of citizens by force. If power is concentrated in the hands of security officers, security officers, planters or oligarchs, and hired workers in their rights and abilities for self-organization are not much different from serfs and slaves, then such power will increase taxes from citizens and subsidize their oligarchs from the treasury. Example: multi-billion tax subsidies from Russians to the oligarchs Vekselberg, Potanin, Prokhorov, offended by Western sanctions.
Economic and political rules of life (institutions) influence people's behavior, incentives to create, invent, produce new things. But the success or failure of the country depends on this. Bill Gates (just like Steve Jobs or Sergey Brin) had talent and ambition. But he also responded to incentives. The school system provided Gates and his ilk with skills that helped them realize their talent. The US economic system has made it easy to start companies without having to find cover and pay kickbacks to officials. The American labor market provided qualified specialists, and the competitive market environment helped build a business and bring your product to customers. They were sure that their dreams could come true, they could not be afraid of the security forces, count on the rule of law and not be afraid for their copyrights. There is nothing like this in poor authoritarian "natural" states like Russia. They can only use the novelties coming from the West, sell gas and oil.
The political systems (institutions) of developed countries provide stability and continuity, guarantee that a dictator will not come to power and will not change the rules of the game, will not put him in jail, will not be able to threaten life and property. These political systems will not allow the president's policy to be directed towards self-isolation of the country, towards its economic catastrophe. But for this, state power should not be concentrated in the hands of a narrow group of people. Ultimately, the developed US economy is a consequence of the Republican political system that has evolved since 1619.
It should be noted that the political and economic systems of rich countries, having strengthened, also influence the mentality of the people. This happened in the former GDR, in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. People begin to understand responsibility for their future, stop relying on the state, say goodbye to mythical hopes for a “good ruler”, for the authorities who will decide everything for them. In these countries, a civil society is being formed, many public, human rights and environmental non-profit organizations are being created. But most importantly, influential political parties enjoying the support of voters are emerging there, capable of formulating their programs for the development of the country and, having received a mandate from voters, to realize the needs of voters.
We emphasize once again: the engine of progress is economic and political competition. Just like sports competitions. Monopolies do not need new products and technologies; they will receive their excess profit anyway. State-owned companies do not need them either, there is no owner, and it is possible to plunder "no one's" property by producing obsolete products. New products and technologies, and hence an increase in the standard of living, are needed only by the citizens themselves, the oligarchs already bathe in luxury. But polls of Russians show that this simple truth is still inaccessible to most Russians. Many still sigh for the costly directive planned socialist system. The Russians must finally realize that the government, which kills competition and creates state monopolies, hinders the growth of their well-being. In the world, only those countries have achieved success that have managed to borrow the orders (political and economic institutions) of developed countries.
But the authors of the book show by examples that the transition from the policy of enriching the "elite" to a policy that ensures the well-being of the whole society occurs only "at turning points", under a combination of certain conditions, when the lower classes do not want, and the top can no longer hold on to power. We usually call these turning points bloody or bloodless (velvet) revolutions. It is important that at these turning points, not only do authoritarian rulers change, but there is a change in order, when the institutions of collecting tribute from the population are replaced by institutions of cooperation, guarantees of the rights and freedoms of citizens, their free access to any form of entrepreneurship. If this does not happen (as during military coups in many countries of Latin America), then the causes of the impoverishment of the people remain.
The authors of the book paid attention to criticism of popular theories about the reasons for the inequality of countries. One of them is the theory of the influence of geographical conditions. They say that the development is hindered by the hot climate. The inhabitants of tropical countries are lazy and inquisitive, they lack diligence, which leads to poverty. But such a theory cannot explain the difference between Mexico and the United States, North and South Korea, East and West Germany (before the fall of the Berlin Wall). This theory has been debunked by the economic successes of Singapore, Malaysia and Botswana.
Another popular theory links the prosperity of nations to their culture. Even Max Weber argued that the Protestant ethic underlay the rapid development of industrial society in Western Europe. For the most part, this theory is useless, because religion, ethical principles, "African" or Latin American values are not particularly important for understanding how the current inequality of rich and poor countries has arisen, why it is so persistent. However, social norms related to work, private property, and attitudes towards the law often support those differences in political systems that lead to the poverty of countries. This must also be taken into account.
Another popular explanation for the poverty of countries is the “ignorance theory”, according to which their rulers simply do not know how to make their country rich. This is wrong. Those in power impoverished most of their citizens not because they considered the current economic policy to be good, but because they were sure that they could get away with anything, that they could enrich themselves at the expense of others and stay in power.
Daron Acimoglu and James F. Robinson's book Why Are Some Countries Rich and Others Poor? helps caring people to understand what really causes the poverty of peoples, how the policy pursued by the government is connected with its selfish interests, how competition, incentives and guarantees of the rights of citizens affect the development of the country. And, most importantly, to understand what needs to be done to bring Russia out of backwardness.
