For this week’s material, I would like to express my ideas regarding raw material and particularly mining in South America.

South America is one of the most rich and resourceful regions of the world. Since the invasion of South America by Europeans and particularly Spanish government, they were always eager to find precious metals in this region. Therefore, they would have forced indigenous people to work for them in mines in a very inhumane situation. However, over the years, the working conditions for locals only slightly improved and they would be forced to work in the mines. After hundreds of years, eventually the working conditions improved, however, it was still significantly below the world standard and locals had to work in those unsafe places as they had no other alternatives. Nowadays, South America is still a very attractive investment opportunity for international firms due to rich resources and cheap cost of labors. Also, since the local governments are corrupted, getting licence for operation is significantly easier compared to North America.

It is important to realize that the economic problems of South America do not belong to the past. People of South America can live in a much better situation if their governments take steps toward improving the natural resources sector. This way, thousands of long term and well paid jobs will be created and the GDP of countries would significantly rise. However, the problems are so deeply rooted that would take governments many years to be able to make positive changes.