Reason And Rights
Paul Hsieh points out exactly why some countries are darker than others on this map.
All of these factors were mutually reinforcing, in that the respect for rights and reason created prosperity which allowed for more innovations in science, technology, capital markets and communications, which led to more prosperity, etc. But the roots of this prosperity were ultimately philosophical. Without a proper understanding of rights, grounded in a philosophy of reason, none of the prosperity of the Anglosphere would have been possible.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that the GDP map tracks closely with countries that still respect reason and rights, which tracks closely with the Anglosphere. The prosperity of modern-day Japan follows from the sweeping cultural and political changes imposed on that country during the American occupation following World War II, and some regard it as a part of the “Anglosphere” in that sense.
To the extent that we depart Capitalism (via abandoning reason as our means of survival and demolishing the sanctity of individual rights) our color will grow lighter.
To illustrate more explicitly:
We can replace the y-axis with any metric of any value - the x-axis will remain the same.
