Achievement of Economic Prosperity and Social Well-Being - 2475 Words

The Achievement of Economic Prosperity and Social Well-Being in China (Essay Sample) Content: The Achievement of Economic Prosperity and Social Well-being in ChinaNameInstitutionQuestion 1. Economic Prosperity and Social Well-being2394 wordsThe Achievement of Economic Prosperity and Social Well-being in ChinaOver the years, China and India have stood out to become some of the countries that have experienced various changes in their political and economic systems. The choice of each countrys political and economic structures has had an influence on their performance regarding the achievement of economic prosperity and social well-being. Between these two countries, China has stood out to become a force to reckon with through the achievement of greater results through its systems. The country, therefore, has become one of the leading economic powerhouses in the world. Even though China just as India faced various setbacks in its achievement of economic success, it has put in place effective political and economic structures that have steered it to this success, an aspect that differentiates it from India. Therefore, Chinas economic and political structures have yielded greater results than India.Over the past 60 years, China has undergone a change from an agrarian society to become an industrial powerhouse in the world. The country has experienced increases in its productivity and wages, and these have allowed it to become one of the largest economies in the world. According to Hua (2012), In 1978, the first year of the reforms, it was just over 30 million tons. Two years later, in 1980, it reached 37.12 million tons, the fifth largest steel output in the world. Hua describes the increased production of steel by China. Two decades after the Peoples Republic of Chinas founding in 1949, there was a growth in the countrys GDP. It was facilitated by increased involvement of the Chinese workforce that ensured a growth in the output of every person. According to Hua (2012), Soviet advisers played a major role in the rise of the country as they helped in the establishment and operation of various projects that were associated with high amounts of capital. The involvement of the Soviet advisers, therefore, ensured that there was increased productivity in the country. Additionally, they helped improve the quality and pace of industrialization. Despite the Great Leap Forward that occurred in 1958-1962, the country recovered and unwounded reforms that had been put in place (Wasserstrom, 2013). The country benefited again from the unwinding of the reforms that worsened several incentives and restricted markets. Therefore, the country once again experienced increased productivity and growth in its GDP after various reforms were unwounded after the Great Leap Forward period.Even though the journey towards the rise of the country to become an economic giant was not very smooth, the manner in which it dealt with various challenges played a major role in its success. For instance, after the unwinding of the reforms between 1962 and 1966, the country experienced a period of Cultural Revolution whereby many individuals clashed with government officials leading to a setback in its economy again. According to Hua (2012), the Communist Partys 11th Central Committee in December 1978 played an important role in the countrys history. It acted as the defining moment regarding economic growth as the countrys economic path shifted from an unsteady to a sustainable one. The session laid the groundwork for the countrys future reforms that were aimed at maximizing productivity and the opening up of more markets for its products. Additionally, farmers started selling their produce in the local markets, as there were no restrictions. Chinas flexibility facilitated its economic growth. The introduction of the Law on Chinese-Foreign Equity Joint Ventures played a significant role as it allowed foreign capital into the country (Hua, 2012). It ensured that regional economies were boosted and this made the government ease various price restrictions. It also allowed various companies that were operating in the country to set up their preferred wage structures and retain their profits. Moreover, the law brought about increased urbanization and a boost in the countrys GDP. Many people who had skills in various jobs were fetched from the countryside to the cities whereby they were given good pay. The law, therefore, ensured that there was market liberalization and this helped China to grow economically and become a leading exporter in the world among other countries such as the United States and Russia.Chinas rise to become one of the largest economies in the world can be attributed to the rise of Deng Xiaoping and the various economic reforms he introduced. Unlike India that practiced restrictive policies, China existed as a country that was free to try out different economic principles. It, therefore, embraced free-market principles that facilitated high productivity. Since the inception of this approach, the countrys economy has continued to grow. Additionally, the country embarked on encouraging the formation of private businesses and rural enterprises. The strategy was effective as many people were encouraged to own their own businesses, unlike the earlier years whereby the government was in charge of most productive assets. Unlike India that continued applying old laws in the running of the countrys economic activities, China embraced openness, and this allowed many people to own businesses without experiencing domination by the state (Hua, 2012). The strategy of liberalizing foreign trade, relaxing the governments control over pricing, investment in industrialization, encouragement of the formation of private businesses and rural enterprises, worked in a spectacular way for the government. It realized that the achievement of economic success required a non-restrictive approach.Productivity played a significant role in the growth of Chinas economy. According to Hua (2012), other fact ors such as capital investment also played a vital role in the growth of the countrys economy, however, increased productivity stood out. Over the last 60 years, China has invested in new machinery and better technology to ensure increased output. However, some of these factors have not been highly effective. Even though capital investment accounted for a rise in the countrys economy, high productivity was the main reason the country grew economically. According to Corbridge, Harriss, and Jeffrey (2013), India experienced low productivity levels during the 1970s and 1980s. Unlike a country like India that did not rely on productivity, China recorded an increase in its GDP making it an economic giant in Asia. The country then experienced an increase in productivity between 1979 and 1984 at a yearly rate of 3.9 percent (Hua, 2012). He adds, At that time Deng Xiaopings open-door policy had entered its eleventh year, and although the reforms had triggered price increases, the economy wa s growing steadily and the standard of living was rising. Growth in the productivity was recorded as the earlier years were characterized by a growth rate of 1.1 percent annually. The increased productivity in the country was due to the various reforms that were undertaken by the government. These reforms were aimed at the creation of an open market whereby people were free to sell their farm produce without necessarily facing opposition from the government. China, therefore, stood out as an economic giant in comparison to India because of the economic reforms it had introduced.The lack of dependence on foreigners played a vital role in Chinas growth. Unlike India that suffered foreign rule for a long period, most of the Chinese territories never experienced foreign rule. However, there were foreigners in the country, and this motivated the calls for the formation of the Peoples Republic of China that would be free of foreign influence. The Chinese embarked on a process of removing foreigners, and this helped them a lot regarding the growth of the nation. India, on the other hand, had long periods of foreign influence, therefore, making them over-dependent on the foreigners mainly the British. Since there was a little presence of foreigners in China, it came up with the idea of modernity (Hua, 2012). It meant that the country had to confront the existing Western ideologies such as Communism, Fascism, and Liberalism. The struggle by China to become dependent on its resources shows the determination it had as a nation to succeed not necessarily depending on other nations. The vision to succeed as a country ensured that the countrys populace worked hard to help achieve the success. Moreover, the unification of the nation helped it achieve the vision of modernity without depending on other foreign powers. According to Hua (2012), After Mao, Deng Xiaoping drew on his own personal prestige to implement reforms and pursue an open-door policy. Deng Xiaopings reforms were critical in initiating growth in China. However, this was not the case in India as it was experiencing several problems in its leadership and it depended on foreign powers. Guha (2007) states, Now, like all other settlements in the Punjab, its fate lay in the hands of the British. It shows the way India was under the British control, and this hindered the implementation of its nationalistic ideologies. In summary, China existed as a unitary state. Its leadership and the vision of economic success without depending on other nations facilitated the unity.The economic transformations in China have had impacts on the social well-being of the Chinese populace in various ways. The trajectory of life satisfaction in China is the same as those for most of the Europ...

Nicholas Carr Is Google Making Us Stupid

â€Å"It is important to distinguish between the power of the Internet to make the great change it can, and the limits and vulnerabilities of that change†,- Naomi Wolf Peering into the future as the technologies takes off, internet has immense impact on our every-day life. There is no doubt it has made our life become easier and more convenient. Being world-wide network it has contributed greatly in many aspects: form communication to information sharing. However, while it retains its’ strong positions giving us extensive experience in what we are doing, yet the negative impact of it takes place as well. Criticism of the Web most often questions whether we are becoming more superficial and scattered in our thinking. As the internet offers us the benefits of quick and easy knowledge, it is affecting the brain’s capacity to read longer articles and books. This concerns were released in the July-August 2008 Atlantic magazine, where Nicholas Carr published his magazine article Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains (alternatively Is Google Making Us Stoopid. This article was on top of discussions in the internet and gained a lot of reviews on the issue. Nicholas Carr being famous and well-respected technology writer, has an important voice today in pointing to the nervousness that many people have about technology. Like other critics, he sees change as loss and not as gain. Summary â€Å"is google making us stupid?† Carrs main argument is that the Internet might have detrimental effects on cognition which diminishes the capacity. He began this essay that he had difficulties concentrating while reading long articles or books. Nicholas Carr claims that regular Internet usage may have diminished his ability to concentrate. And there are many people who supports him, for example, Heidi Julavits says: â€Å"I wont deny that I have a far more productive writing life without the Internet, mostly because I rekindle my ability to concentrate on one thing for a period of longer than three minutes.â€Å" The author states that student have changed their approach to study and learning process in general, they are more distracted by the content that Internet offers, they are getting lazy and spend more time online than it is requred. This is how Nicholas Carr is presenting his voice of concerns: Im not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when Im reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and Id spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. Thats rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if Im always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle. Of course, as a writer, he finds the Web a valuable tool, but he thinks its having a bad effect on his concentration. Carr admits that we, meaning the humanity and society nowadays, read a lot more because of the Web, but deplores this saying that our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged. Despite the essay provides with plenty of examples why Internet is bad for learning (he shares some responses on blogs, provides with anecdotes), unfortunately Carr sees only one side of the change that humanity is going through. Of course, we see that books are loosing their readers, as books are becoming unpopulated and even obsolete. Moreover, some people could not simply affor buying books, as they are expensive and hard to get. In addition, the knowledge presented in books, is slow to develop, hard to respond to, and sometimes it is not in up-to –date state. Therefore, people rely on the Internet resources to get the information they need, they look for another options (in some cases people even order books online as it is considered as almost the same source of knowledge or tool to learn). It is easy to criticize a new technology; it is harder to understand how the new technology can help create new abilities in humans. And even much harder to understand how technology can actually recapture and re-enable human abilities- it allows us to work more efficiently, to meet new interesting people, and of course for pure entertainment. All we need to do here is to make it well- balanced: the time for learning, the time we spend online, the resources, materials and the books we use combining this approach with lowering up the distractions in Internet called to reduce the time waste online. Keeping these in mind, we need to accept the fact that even in the most useful, handy and profitable things there is always sort of a danger. While it may seem like everyone surfs the web these days, there is fine line between casually checking your social media pages and having a full blown internet addiction. We should not allow internet to distract or disturb our minds. It is necessary to understand that falling into the lure of exploring everything that is available in world-wide network can be harmful and as the result, might lead to internet addiction. So moderate and restrained usage of internet is the key to make it beneficial for us as well as bringing harmony in our lives. To sum up, the first question, which was stated in the beginning of this article, needs to be answered. With all respect to such a great writer as Nicholas Carr, i cant agree with his statement nor with the argument he had provided. In my opinion, Google is not making us stupid. What Google and the World Wide Web are doing is helping people to learn by providing them variety of choices, getting us with access to plenty of tools, platforms, materials and other web resources. Moreover, Google, being the biggest search engine, connects us with people from all over the world and by his connections we can find people alike sharing the same interests, supporting each other in learning and helping in every moment of need. Google is, indeed, making us smarter as we re-discover new ways to learn.