Lesotho is very mountainous and doesn’t have a lot of good farmland, there are diamond mines but the price of diamonds has dropped from consumer avoidance of “blood” diamonds or conflict diamonds and the increasing prevalence of lab-grown diamonds, and the government has long been corrupt. Racism is also a likely factor.
Lesotho is mostly high and dry, for many years its main export was men to work in SA mines, they brought home wages and TB, then HIV. They sell hydroelectricity to SA, a few diamonds, have a few garment factories but subsistence agriculture is still common.
Lesotho is dominated by an extractive industry, has little prospect for diversifying,
San Marino is a tiny services economy that benefits from being highly integrated into the EU and Italian economic markets whilst avoiding having its GDP per capita being dragged down by the unequal economy across the Italian regions.
For the same reason Venus is so much poorer than Earth, even though both are planets – because an enclave is simply a country entirely encircled by only other country, and a planet is simply a big enough thing orbiting a star. Note that neither of these definitions mentions economics.
Lesotho is poorer than South Africa because it mostly manufacturers clothing and food and is lacking in natural resources. South Africa has a more diversified economy that isn’t entirely farming. San Marino is richer than Italy (in per capita terms) because it’s a very small country and disproportionately works in fields that generate more money like finance.
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Do you mean richer as in GDP, GDP per capita, total wealth, or another measurement?
Lesotho is very mountainous and doesn’t have a lot of good farmland, there are diamond mines but the price of diamonds has dropped from consumer avoidance of “blood” diamonds or conflict diamonds and the increasing prevalence of lab-grown diamonds, and the government has long been corrupt. Racism is also a likely factor.
Hang on a minute.
What makes enclaves behave the same everywhere? Why do you think that because two countries are enclaves, they will naturally be alike?
Switzerland is landlocked. So is Ethiopia. Would they behave the same just because they’re landlocked?
Lesotho is mostly high and dry, for many years its main export was men to work in SA mines, they brought home wages and TB, then HIV. They sell hydroelectricity to SA, a few diamonds, have a few garment factories but subsistence agriculture is still common.
I assume you mean in terms of GDP per capita.
Lesotho is dominated by an extractive industry, has little prospect for diversifying,
San Marino is a tiny services economy that benefits from being highly integrated into the EU and Italian economic markets whilst avoiding having its GDP per capita being dragged down by the unequal economy across the Italian regions.
For the same reason Venus is so much poorer than Earth, even though both are planets – because an enclave is simply a country entirely encircled by only other country, and a planet is simply a big enough thing orbiting a star. Note that neither of these definitions mentions economics.
Lesotho is poorer than South Africa because it mostly manufacturers clothing and food and is lacking in natural resources. South Africa has a more diversified economy that isn’t entirely farming. San Marino is richer than Italy (in per capita terms) because it’s a very small country and disproportionately works in fields that generate more money like finance.