Is there a correlation between the percentage of sunlight (or cloud cover) and the overall economic prosperity of a state or nation?
Looking at states; take the five permanent members of the UN security council: USA, Russia, Britain, Germany, and China. I take these 5 because in one way or another they have demonstrated considerable power and/or prosperity, thus enabling them to secure those permanent seats. I can hardly believe the USA, Germany, and Britain can be counted among the most popular destinations when one is looking for a sunny vacation. As for Russia and China... i don't know enough about them to made a claim. On the other side, states such as Italy and Spain have high rates of annual sunlight and are (arguably) on the weaker end of the economic spectrum among the core EU states. I would imagine that a considerable amount of adjustments would have to be made in order to account for political and other factors.
... just a thought. Would be kind of interesting bit of knowledge. What would some of be the implications be if a strong correlation did exist?
2 comments:
This is an interesting thought indeed. would you want to work if you lived in Italy? I think not. I am currently in Monrovia, Liberia for a few months and I think that the tropical development does affect work ethic, Its so hot during the mid day that its hard to work outside lets say on a rice farm. However, Liberia also has a monsoon season which too hampers the properity. I say this knowing that Liberia is poor due to the massive civil war it faced but i think you make a valid point.
We talked a little about this in my politics in developing countries class. The cold winters in Europe/northern US forced people to work hard and build shelters and grow enough food to last from late autumn till spring. People in southern countries never had to do that, they just moved around and foraged wherever b/c plants kept growing throughout the year.
That winter accumulation of food makes you think of the philosophies behind capitalism and consumerism, no?
Post a Comment