🌍 Main Question: Why Are First World Countries Rich and Others Poor?

🧩 Core Argument

• Poor countries are not inherently poor.
• Rather, they are rich in resources, but their wealth is appropriated through unequal global economic systems that enrich the Global North.
• Colonialism has evolved into a modern form of systemic exploitation through trade, finance, and political influence.

📦 Unequal Exchange: The Key Concept

📘 Based on a Groundbreaking Study

• The video draws on a peer-reviewed research paper on global unequal exchange and resource appropriation.
• Focuses on how Northern countries (Global North) appropriate labor, land, materials, and energy from Southern countries (Global South).

📊 Key Data from 2015 (North’s appropriation from South):

• 12 billion tons of raw materials
• 822 million hectares of land
• 21 exajoules of energy (~3.4B barrels of oil)
• 188 million person-years of labor (~$10.8 trillion in value)

This drain is enough to end global extreme poverty 70 times over.

🏗️ Historical Context: Colonial Foundations

• Western Europe’s rise came from:
  • Spanish silver from the Andes
  • British cotton, tea, and opium
  • Belgian rubber from the Congo
  • French and Portuguese resource extraction
• The U.S., Canada, and Australia replicated these imperialist systems as settler-colonial states.