Living
Standards: Malawi, 2000 versus the Stone
Age
To demonstrate how low living
standards are in modern sub-Saharan Africa, even relative to the Stone Age I
first compare England in 1800 relative to hunter-gatherer societies, then
England in 1800 against modern Malawi.
The English in 1800 lived at about the same level as the Stone Age. Incomes in Malawi in 2000-2 seem to have been
33-40% of those of England in 1800, and hence significantly less than those of
the Stone Age.
1. England,
1800 vs. Stone age
As the table below
shows there is no indication that average living standards in England in 1800
were any better than those of forager societies, which we can take as typical
of the Stone Age.
2. England in 1800 versus Malawi in 2001-2
Table 3.2 shows the wages of construction laborers in
Malawi in 2001 and 2002, compared to the prices of some major items of
consumption, along with to the comparative data for construction laborers in
England in 1800.
Only food prices are available for Malawi, but since these
were 75 percent of English farm workers’ expenditures they provide a fair
approximation of living standards. The
second column shows the day wage in England as well as prices in England. The fourth column gives the same data for
Malawi in 2001-2. Columns 3 and 5 show
how much of each item could be purchased with the day wage in each
country. Thus the day wage in England in
1800 would purchase 3.2 kg. of wheat flour, while the day wage in Malawi would
purchase only 2.1 kg. of inferior maize flour.
English workers of 1800 could purchase much more of most
goods than their Malawian counterparts.
The last row shows the cost of the English basket of foods in d.
(assuming that all income was spent on food) and the equivalent cost in Malawi
(in Kwacha). If a Malawian tried to
purchase the consumption of the English worker in 1800 he could afford only 40
percent as much. Thus living standards
in England in 1800 were 2.5 times greater than those of current day
Malawi. Figure 3.2 shows a rural village
in Malawi now. Yet the wage in Malawi is
still above the subsistence level for that economy, since the Malawian
population continues to grow rapidly.
Figure
3.2 A rural village in Malawi.[1]
Wages and Prices in Malawi, 2001-2, and England, 1800[2]
|
|
1800 (d.) |
1800 Units per day |
2001-2 (Kwacha) |
2001-2 Units
per day |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wage |
23.9 |
- |
69 |
- |
|
Prices |
|
|
|
|
|
Flour
(kg) |
7.5 |
3.2 |
33 |
2.1 |
|
Bread
(kg) |
5.9 |
4.0 |
46 |
1.5 |
|
Potato
(kg) |
1.2 |
20.4 |
16 |
4.2 |
|
Beef
(kg) |
17.4 |
1.4 |
123 |
0.6 |
|
Eggs
(doz) |
11.1 |
2.1 |
84 |
0.8 |
|
Milk
(l) |
2.4 |
9.9 |
48 |
1.4 |
|
Sugar
(kg) |
26.3 |
0.9 |
42 |
1.7 |
|
Beer
(l) |
4.1 |
5.8 |
93 |
0.7 |
|
Tea
(kg) |
219.5 |
0.1 |
248 |
0.3 |
|
Salt
(kg) |
9.1 |
2.6 |
24 |
2.8 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cost of English
Basket |
23.9 |
1.0 |
178 |
0.4 |
For
a much wider range of countries we have estimates of real national income per person
in 2000. It is also possible for England
to estimate national income per person back to 1200, so we can compare average
income per person in pre-industrial England with the range in the modern
world. Table 3.3 shows the results of
that comparison. England in 1200-1800
had as high, or higher, an income per person as large areas of the modern
world. Countries with more than 700
million people in the year 2000 had incomes below the average of pre-industrial
England. Another billion people in India
had average incomes only 10 percent above England before the Industrial
Revolution. Some modern countries are
dramatically poorer. Hundreds of
millions of African now live on less than 40 percent of the income of
pre-industrial England.
Table 3.3
Comparative Incomes per Person, 2000[3]
|
Country |
Population 2000 (m.) |
Income per person (2005 $) |
Relative Income (%) |
Population Growth Rate (%) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
34 |
569 |
20 |
2.1 |
|
Burundi |
7 |
717 |
25 |
2.9 |
|
Ethiopia |
64 |
832 |
29 |
2.3 |
|
Sierra Leone |
5 |
849 |
30 |
2.3 |
|
Malawi |
10 |
935 |
33 |
2.4 |
|
Nigeria |
127 |
956 |
34 |
2.4 |
|
Zambia |
10 |
972 |
34 |
2.1 |
|
Madagascar |
16 |
1,014 |
36 |
3.0 |
|
Rwanda |
9 |
1,129 |
40 |
2.4 |
|
Burkina Fasa |
11 |
1,141 |
40 |
3.0 |
|
Mali |
11 |
1,150 |
41 |
2.3 |
|
Benin |
6 |
1,417 |
50 |
2.7 |
|
|
30 |
1,525 |
54 |
2.6 |
|
|
19 |
1,590 |
56 |
2.1 |
|
|
23 |
1,809 |
64 |
2.2 |
|
|
10 |
1,945 |
69 |
2.3 |
|
Bangladesh |
131 |
2,052 |
73 |
2.2 |
|
Nicaragua |
5 |
2,254 |
80 |
2.0 |
|
Cote D'Ivoire |
16 |
2,345 |
83 |
2.0 |
|
Pakistan |
138 |
2,497 |
88 |
2.2 |
|
Honduras |
6 |
2,505 |
89 |
2.3 |
|
Moldova |
4 |
2,559 |
90 |
0.3 |
|
Cameroon |
15 |
2,662 |
94 |
2.0 |
|
|
- |
2,828 |
100 |
0.1 |
|
|
13 |
3,016 |
107 |
0.6 |
|
|
1,016 |
3,103 |
110 |
1.4 |
|
|
8 |
3,391 |
120 |
1.6 |
|
|
1,259 |
4,446 |
157 |
0.6 |
|
|
|
|
|
|