Hong Kong

GDP: $350,400,000,000

GDP per capita: $49,300

Life expectancy: 82.12 years

Poverty rate: 17.7%

Literacy rate: 93.5%

Unemployment rate: 3.4%

Inflation: 5.3%

Why Did Human History Unfold Differently On Different Continents For The Last 13,000 Years?

Diamond's major themes in this piece are that these differences between the growth of these cultures can be attributed to a combination of: a lack of domesticated animals, a preference to east-west continents over north-south, population density, an unawareness to deadly disease, and an overall lack of arable and thus a lack of beneficial plant life. When combining all of these various factors one reaches his overall point in which he believes it is not a biological difference that determined which civilizations thrived and which did not, but rather it was due to the inevitable outcome after combining all of these factors, such as a lack of technology due to an inability to farm productively.

On another note, these determinants to society can be applied to today's global economy by through the course of time countries have been able to adapt to the majority free market economies there are today. By adapt I refer to Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" theory, so at this point in time successful countries all over the world have been able to decide what is in fact most productive for them to do, and thus the best for their own self interest. By using the available technology and easy access to communication nations everywhere have been able to specialize and determine what is ultimately most efficient and most profitable for them to produce and distribute themselves, and additionally what they are reliant upon other countries for.