The tables that I would like you to investigate (by clicking here) provide insight into world economic relationships, the meaning of poverty, and the nature and size of the gap between developed and developing nations. These statistics were compiled by the World Bank, also known as the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, one of many international organizations concerned with alleviating world poverty by encouraging economic development. Founded at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, the World Bank soon became affiliated with the newly established United Nations. Using funds subscribed by UN members, it advances loans to nations and private businesses for projects that further economic development. Although most loans at first went for postwar reconstruction projects, since the 1950s the bank mainly has supported loans for projects in developing areas. Since 1978 it has published annually its World Development Report, with commentary on development strategy and statistics on economic, demographic, fiscal, and educational trends. Since 2001 most of the statistical data have been published in a separate volume, World Development Indicators.As is true with all historical evidence, the data that you will read must be evaluated and interpreted. Take, for example, the category of “Gross National Product per Capita,” a number calculated by dividing a country’s population into the Gross National Product (or Gross National Income), the value of all goods and services the economy produces. Such information gives a broad idea of a country’s overall standard of living, but cannot be viewed as an accurate gauge of the prevalence of poverty. For this we would need further information about how a country’s wealth is distributed. One would expect, for example, that in two countries with roughly similar GNPs per capita, Latvia (which is not included in the tables) and Brazil, the incidence of poverty would be higher in Brazil, where people in the upper 20 percent income bracket receive 65 percent of all income, than in Latvia, where people in the upper 20 percent income bracket receive only 40 percent of all income. Similarly, data on the number of students attending postsecondary educational institutions tell us nothing about graduation rates or the quality of schools these students are attending. Even with these caveats, the information provided by the World Bank can reveal a great deal about how we as human beings live and where we may be heading. You may also find it helpful to navigate through their 2009 report on their website by clicking here.
After reading through the reports, I would like you to think about and discuss the following: What are the major population trends revealed in the tables? To what extent do the tables reveal uneven development among the world’s major regions? Does the information in the tables suggest that the gap between rich and poor nations is getting larger or smaller? For those nations that have not achieved significant economic progress, what insights do the tables provide into reasons for their lack of success? What information do the tables provide on the relationship of economic growth and environmental quality? On the basis of the information in the tables would it appear that things are getting better or worse for humankind? Your thoughts…
9 comments:
there are certain trends that are easy to see such as: the life expectancy is higher in well developed nations, along with the carbon dioxide emissions...other than Switzerland. the fact that the illiteracy rate can very from 80 percent to under 3 percent is sickening. the United states and other developed countries have the means of helping these countries but we don't....if this is human nature than i feel disgrace to call my self one.
When I look at the tables I see the underdeveloped countries populations shoot up while the leading power nations are fairly moderate. Also the life expectancy is the total opposite though. But what I thought was really funny is that even though they have more people we still give off the most amount of carbon on the whole chart, by thousands. The USA has the most carbon emission at of all the developed nations at well.
The underdeveloped gross much less than we do and it is probably they have such low literacy rates and die at a much younger age than developed nations do.
The population trends are going up rapidly. It is clear in the # of computers per 1,000 people, life expectancy at birth, % of people in secondary school, literacy rate and availability of fresh water that there is a major gap between countries. Niceties that seem common place, phones, computers, even fresh water, are rarities in some places. It’s sad that some people can’t even get fresh water, and yet some Americans have more than one computer in a home. The gap in rich/poor differences is growing right along with the population, and they (poorer countries) have little success of growing up. Larger countries “need” areas to exploit for raw goods and cheep labor or their profits would go down, and the smaller countries need loans to industrialize. I think that it seems as if things are getting better for people, there are higher percentages getting the niceties of industrialized, but the cost seems great. I’d say that humanity is digging its own grave.
What's startling is that in the population of the underdeveloped nations has doubled in almoat all of the countries listed in 5 years except for a few, but those have risen alot too. In the industrialized nations though, the population seems to be more at a plateau, it is still rising, but slowly. The connections made are that the less developed countries are also the countries with the lowest literacy rates and they have lower life expectancies and lower per capita product and not much access to frest water. As opposed to countries like the United staes and japan who have complete access to fresh water and computers and are educated. I think that while tihngs appear to be getting better in countries that are industrialized they are getting worse on countries that aren't. These countries have more people than they can support and we aren't helping them much.
Just by glancing at the tabled, one can easily see that developed nations are far better off than any less developed or developing nation. Just by looking at the life expectancy anyone can see that developed nation's life expectancy rate is higher than any developing nation. When I look at the tables and see how many children under the age of 5 die in developing nations, I am truly sickened when I compare them to that of developed nations, such as the US. We have the ability to provide these people with medical help, but we choose not to, instead we choose to live with objects we take for granted every day. People would rather stay in the comfort of their nation than go and offer support for nations that actually need medical care. It is also so sickening that countries like Ethiopia have a Per Capita Income of only $100 whereas Americans are making $34870. And we complain that we can't have certain things, or that we're poor! When I look back on how I have acted in the past I truly am ashamed at how spoiled I was. The fact that illiteracy rates are so high in developing nations is shocking. Yes, I knew that it was bad, but over time I had expected it to become far better in my narrow-minded view of the world. We could provide an education for others, but we don't. [Sorry for the rant.]
One huge, easy to see example of the gap between the poor and the rich countries getting bigger is the statistics for the life expectancy. For a developing nation like Uganda, life expectancy was 50 in 1975, and now it's 43- it's dropped. Meanwhile in the US, it went from 71 to around 81 average.
Ethopia is lesser in everything, except illiteracy rates and all. And this isn't even all of Africa's countries. It did get better as years went by but... the major countries already had that years ago. It shows how much we don't care about other humans if they are not related to us in some way. Yeah...
The statistic that stuck out the most to me was the gross national product per capita. There were nine countries in which the average income is less than a thousand dollars. Then at the opposite end of the spectrum, Switzerland, Japan, and the United States of America are all average about three hundred times that of Ethiopia. The difference between the developed and underdeveloped countries is absurd. Then there is a terrible population problem to go along with the poverty.
Wow i can clearly see the way the world works after this class. The developed nations get richer, and the undeveloped nations get poorer. We definitly need to fix this situation. No utopia, but enough for each nation to start their own economy.
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