What would the world look like if divided up on purely economic grounds?
May 24, 2013 4:39 PM Subscribe
So, let's imagine an ideal world where national boundaries, regional hostilities, and ethnic divisions all disappear. What sorts of natural economic boundaries would develop in such a world? By this I mean, what areas of the world would more-or-less naturally chunk into exporters of some products and importers of others? Examples and clarifications inside.
I don't mean, how would the world evolve from our current state to this ideal one, but more of a geological/ecological/environmental blank slate, given current levels of technology. So, I'm not looking for answers from modern-day practical economists, so much as from geographers, farmers, geologists, petrochemical scientists, engineers — that sort of thing.
So, for instance, the Ukraine and the American Mid-West would be huge grain exporters, and, say, importers of heavy metals. Southern Africa would export uranium and import cloudberries. Places like Patagonia and the Alps would probably just have winter sports and adventuring going on. The OPEC countries would still be massive oil exporters.
Of course, economic relations without national boundaries would be infinitely complex and intertwined, but I'm curious if there are any large-scale, obvious regions that would emerge, and what their boundaries would roughly be. I hope this makes sense the way I've described it.
I don't mean, how would the world evolve from our current state to this ideal one, but more of a geological/ecological/environmental blank slate, given current levels of technology. So, I'm not looking for answers from modern-day practical economists, so much as from geographers, farmers, geologists, petrochemical scientists, engineers — that sort of thing.
So, for instance, the Ukraine and the American Mid-West would be huge grain exporters, and, say, importers of heavy metals. Southern Africa would export uranium and import cloudberries. Places like Patagonia and the Alps would probably just have winter sports and adventuring going on. The OPEC countries would still be massive oil exporters.
Of course, economic relations without national boundaries would be infinitely complex and intertwined, but I'm curious if there are any large-scale, obvious regions that would emerge, and what their boundaries would roughly be. I hope this makes sense the way I've described it.
This post was deleted for the following reason: Yeah, sorry, but this is pretty much textbook chatfilter. -- mathowie
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