Education, Industry,Trade and Development of American Countries in 1980-99

This paper presents a general view of economic growth and the evolution of education and population in North America, Central America and South America, including a comparison of production by inhabitant in Agriculture, Industry and Services, and foreign trade. The leadership of USA and Canada is mainly supported by their great support to education, human capital and industry, and this policy should be followed to improve a general development in all America. Although the debt crises and the other problems of the Latin American countries have generalized a vision of failure and economic stagnation, a realistic analysis, based on international comparisons, reveal that these countries have undergone an extremely good evolution in terms of the growth rate of real Gdp. The main cause of poverty and low levels of income per head in many countries has been the excessively high rates of fertility during the second half of the twentieth century. Fortunately, improvements in the educational level of the Latin American countries could contribute to an important sustained growth of real Gross Domestic Product, total and by inhabitant, in the next future. This guiding principle needs to be complemented with important changes in the domestic policies that contribute to reduce the risks of foreign investments and to attract the necessary international cooperation.