Comments by "Yo2" (@yo2trader539) on "Was Latin America Too Rich to Prosper? - VisualEconomik EN" video.
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The economic success of Taiwan and South Korea has deep roots in the reforms/modernization in KOSEKI system, taxation, land ownership, mandatory and higher-education system, infrastructure, agriculture, laws and judicial system, healthcare, government institutions, and even cultural indoctrination from Japanese administration. Japan introduced/forced the exact same structure, system, and policies that worked in Japan. As such, it was almost natural and easy for Taiwan and South Korea to emulate Japan's post-WWII economic model. (The South Korean and Taiwanese elites after WWII were mostly educated in Japanese academic institutions.)
Conversely, Japan occupied the Philippines for 3 years but there wasn't any time to implement any meaningful reforms. As such, the Philippines got stuck with what they've inherited from the Spanish and American colonial times. It's exactly why the Philippines carries similar social, political, and economic issues to many of the Latin American countries. Crimes, Drugs, Guns, Inequality, Corruption, teenage pregnancy...it's like a mirror image.
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