QatzelOk wrote:Canada - like India - was owned by foreign multinationals a century ago.
But unlike Canada, India managed to hang onto so many of its cultures.
So here too, India is more successful.
Are you implying Canada had a culture at any point? The aboriginals were a minority population to begin with and different tribes had different cultures.
I'm not sure how you'd classify Indian culture, the country did split into two, then three countries. And all of them, specifically Bangladesh are still excessively poor.
India's "success" is a pure numbers game. With a country of substantial population density, profit can be made in even the lowest labor sectors. Even on a net gain of $1 an hour, let's say, for each bottom worker's product, if you have a million workers, you will net a million profit for the company. The way Indian businesses work is particularly scrupulous. Not unlike the Chinese, Indian corporations can make substantial wealth for the few who run the company and thus the actual numbers may appear well but the averages do not.
It's not even a case where the average Indian is below poverty, it's that most Indians are absolute dirt poor. Granted we have to factor in urban vs. rural and the fact that no country with an exorbitant population can have meaningful averages. However even in cities the average Indian will struggle. You also have to consider that countries like Indian and China can more easily "cook" the books. Numbers can be inflated to present favorable output, etc, etc.
Having had several friends and aquantances visit India or be from there, it is a pretty horrific country on the world stage in terms of human rights and financial well being. I actually argue it has not grown much at all. Some I think are being blinded by India's natural growth and taking it as some great leap.
Most countries have substantially evolved in the last fifty years.
And yes, countries like Canada have not "evolved" as evidently as a country like India, but this is irrational thinking.
For example, in the 1980s, Canada had substantial stock of computers, food and automobiles.
In the 2000s, this is still the same, but more individual have computers because it's a natural cycle.
In India in the 1980s most people did not have computers, sufficient food and less automobiles.
In the 2000s this has not changed.
However it's far easier to notice when say a village full of people going from having no computers to have 5 computers in ten years, than it is to notice a village with 50 computers have 80 computers in ten years.
It doesn't mean the village that got 5 computers when it had none had grown and been more successful than the village that went from 50 to 70.
Why? Cause the village with 50 computers doesn't need 5 times the computers in a ten year span.
Also the technological growth worldwide has accelerated.
10 years in this era can see substantially more growth than 50 years in the 1800s.
Thus we may look at the last 50 years in India and see incredible growth in medicine, technology and transportation, but it doesn't mean it'special.
Also note that when you're coming from behind you can see ahead how to accomplish certain goals.
India didn't invent nuclear weapons, computers or automobiles.
Thus it's easier for them to just buy blueprints or outright steal them.
Here's another example:
Kid A builds a treehouse out of lumber he bought at the local hardware store.
He incorrectly builds the treehouse the first two times before correctly doing so the third.
He then buys a television with an extension cord and install a tv in his treehouse.
He then sets up a wireless router and adds a computer to it.
The whole project takes him 4 years to complete.
Meanwhile 3 brothers from across the street observe Kid A's treehouse and how he built it and added features to it.
They go to a super store and buy lumber, a tv, a wireless router and extensions chords and set about building their own treehouse.
They finish their project in 1 year.
What's more impressive?
Keeping in mind the three brothers bought an older tv and an older computer and Kid A has now installed a fridge.