Maggie Chamberlain, Chapter 13, Question 7

I always knew that there was a disparity of wealth between nations, but I had never really thought about its origins. America has grown to be such a wealthy country due to our initial attractive assets for settlement. The Congo, on the other hand, with its high mortality rate due to its climate's susceptibility to breeding disease, was a location in which colonizers focused on extracting as much wealth as possible as quickly as they could. Since a place like the Congo was never an attractive place for long-term settlement, it never developed colonies that relied on advanced technology in order to sustain a large population. In addition to that, poor countries are not provided with the drugs they need to cure their fatal diseases because the rich countries that have the power to make these medications only want to make a medicine for countries who can afford it because they only want money. This is the sad truth, and Wheelan's main suggestion is to change the rich countries incentives- offer them a reward for creating a drug that will help the poorer countries. We can only hope that one day this will happen.