The richest countries in the world.
Commodities, International, Investing ideas, PredictionsAugust 12th, 2006Heres a question. What will be the richest countries in the world in a few decades? If you answered any of the following USA, UK, Germany, Japan you got it wrong. Try again. Did you think it was China, India, Brazil, Russia? Wrong again.
Where does wealth come from?
Wealth comes from natural resources which can be harvested and sold to those who want them. Wealth also comes from material that can be changed into something more valuable through proper application of knowledge, skill, labor and equipment. So we have 2 ways to generate wealth. Harvesting natural resources and improving resources thru knowledge and labor. With world population bursting at the seams there is an ever increasing availability of people and labor. Natural resources on the other hand are finite.
What makes a country wealthy?
If a country consumes everything it produces it creates no wealth. If a country consumes more than it produces its poor. Only countries that have a surplus are wealthy. You may feel that China fits the bill since it has a trade surplus with most countries. China has an extremely large population that is currently living on basic necessities. As the population starts to become more consumer oriented more of their manufacturing and production will be used to satisfy internal needs. The countries that I feel are the richest are Australia and Canada.
Why these 2 countries?
Lets look at some Figures first
USA - Population 300 Million - Area 9.6 Million sq kms.
Canada - Population 32 Million - Area 9.9 Million sq kms.
Australia - Population 20 million - Area 7.7 Million sq kms.
These two countries have extremely large land masses with barely the population of 2 major american cities. Furthermore Canada and Australia are developed countries with good infrastructure and stable governments unlike the middle east and africa. Geographically Canada’s proximity to the US and Australia’s relative proximity to China gives both these countries major customers that need natural resources.
How to invest?
A simple way to get exposure to these countries is to use an ETF.
IShare MSCI Australia (EWA)
IShare MSCI Canada (EWC)
September 28th, 2006 at 8:19 am
I have reservations over the analysis submitted as most part of Australia and Canada are inhabitable. that is the reason why the land area to people ratio is high. being developed a population expanse is not expected.natural resources are also not abundant as anyone may wish.even if it is present, the cost of extracting & using is going to be humungous.
March 23rd, 2007 at 5:21 am
Shine, your comments are unfounded.
Australia and Canada are both extremely resource rich. And regardless of much of the land being uninhabitable, the ratios of resources to population still exist.
That’s what this is about. Per capita wealth based on resource estimates.
And as for cost & extraction… there are a lot of VERY profitable companies operating in both Australia and Canada.
June 27th, 2007 at 5:00 am
yes; australia currently supplies much of the worlds metal needs, epically china, and giant companies operating in australia such as BHP and Rio Tinto are now so profitable that they have to spend there surplus cash and are now buying out Canadian companies and are hoping to buy usa’s giant as well which will most likely happen before the financial year ends. so australia is very wealthy in that it is rich in all of the major profit sectors such as; metal , gold, silver, oil, gas, and huge amounts of farm rich land, you will see Australia becoming the food bowl of Asia in coming years.
June 27th, 2007 at 5:02 am
yes; australia currently supplies much of the worlds metal needs, epically china, and giant companies operating in australia such as BHP and Rio Tinto are now so profitable that they have to spend there surplus cash and are now buying out Canadian companies and are hoping to buy usa’s giant as well which will most likely happen before the financial year ends. so australia is very wealthy in that it is rich in all of the major profit sectors such as; metal , gold, silver, oil, gas, and huge amounts of farm rich land, you will see Australia becoming the food bowl of Asia in coming years. so
November 9th, 2007 at 3:52 am
Australia is the richest, wealthiest country by far. America and all of Europe will pale in comparison and so will any other country. Australia is one of the few countries that is surrounded by complete ocean. It can protect itself from people trying to illegally gaining entry or access to its resources. It has everything it needs to sustain itself and it as wealth resources beyond any calcuation in dollars. If you took all the metal , gold, silver, oil, gas, out of the Australia at current prices and divided it among its citizens then each Australian would be multi mutli billionaires. But as most people know that thing called money is just a worthless printed little piece of paper. Forget the money give me gold, silver, uranuiam ,iron ore, gas!
January 9th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Hmmm, There are other nations that have ‘so called’ precious metals other than Australia, Canada and China. Brazil comes to mind… As for Australia becoming the food-bowl of Asia, what a load of bollocks! Australia is producing less and less food every year, as is china and a number of other countries. You see, to produce food a nation needs WATER – lots of water. Yes, the 2 MOST precious resources that Australia and China lack is 1) Water and 2) Oil. It is more likely that Australia’s nearest neighbour (New Zealand) will become the “food basket” of Asia - it is already the world’s largest producer of dairy and easily has enough (virtual) water to produce most of the world’s food…. Global warming needs to be factored into such predictions and some nations will benefit (e.g, New Zealand)while other nations will have suffer(e.g., Australia). You can’t eat iron ore and gold…
January 13th, 2008 at 4:24 pm
i think that Afghanistan is the most powerfull and richest country in the world………ha
January 13th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
i think that Afghanistan is the most powerfull and richest country of the world perhaps bcz of its golden history,geographical location ,minerals,metals,golden mountains and etc,yes its the best,