In thinking about how nations around the world should pursue the goal of raising
ID: 1124095 • Letter: I
Question
In thinking about how nations around the world should pursue the goal of raising their standard
of living, economists find it useful to divide those nations into three groups.
First, provide a (five paragraph)
Identify and briefly describe each group, and include examples of nations that would
be classified within each particular group.
Using their group designation, identify the problem relating to growth policies associated
with high-income countries and discuss the focus of main public policies targeted at
addressing this problem. Try addressing then the same for the other classifications.
No plagiarism
Explanation / Answer
Economic Classification of countries
Basing on the economic, political, social and administrative background and status of the nations, each country pursues the goal of raising the standards of living in a different way (Schilderinck, 2012). Narrowing down to the economic perspectives, the economists’ classified countries into three major groups; Developed countries, developing countries and the third world countries. The nations differ in different aspects ranging from industrialization and the level of the infrastructure.
Developed Countries
This group of nations are perceived to have the highest standard of living so far in the word. Examples include United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Canada. All these countries have similar features in common concerning the quality of life in their locality. First, due to well-developed industries and infrastructures that provides job opportunities, majority of the citizens are employed reducing the unemployment rate (Schilderinck, 2012). Since a good percentage of the population is employed and allocated to a regular income, they are able to afford basic needs and other services such as health care to maintain high living standards.
Secondly these nations have a high level of human capital in terms of health and education (Schilderinck, 2012). Basic education such as primary education is compulsorily either free or cheap enough to be afforded by all citizens irrespective of their working status. Therefore each and every child in the nations has an opportunity to acquire education hence reducing or eradicating the illiteracy in the community which one of the measures used to determine the living standards. Similarly basic health services in these nations such as maternity service and child immunization are freely provided to the whole society (Schilderinck, 2012).The service are also of higher quality as compared to other nations. They are readily available and accessible.
Besides that the basic housing is usually cheap with a minimum of 100 sq. feet. The opportunities for work based on qualifications are free and fair as well as the rule of law. “Rules are applied to one and all” without corruption, partiality, tweaking or nepotism to favour certain individuals or a group of persons (Schilderinck, 2012). This makes the standard of living in the nation very high since all individuals are treated equally regardless of race, gender, religion, economical status and the age.
Developing Countries
Unlike the developed countries, developing nations are those ones aspiring to attain the level of developed ones. Generally, they are characterised by moderate development which are still on-going or being improved to as to meet the perceived high standards of living. Examples include Armenia, Peru, India, Rwanda, Romania and Honduras.
These countries have moderate level of urbanization but rapid rural to urban migration (Baffoe-Bonnie & Khayum, 2003). The urban centres such as cities and towns are not fully developed to canter for population needs; the same case applies to industrialization (Baffoe-Bonnie & Khayum, 2003). It is when the industries, factories and manufacturing firms are being built and expanded to produce on large scale and venture into the global or international market (Baffoe-Bonnie & Khayum, 2003). As a result, the low of unemployment is moderately high. Few people are therefore assured of regular income hence making the living standards in these nations lower than that in developed nations but better than standards in the third world nations.
The basic needs in these countries and available but not to the whole society. For instances education and health services are not accessible to all citizens (Baffoe-Bonnie & Khayum, 2003). Furthermore, they are more expensive in reference to the country’s economic status. A significant number of citizens are not in a position to afford the services. As a result, the illiteracy level still exists in such nations since some children grow up uneducated (Baffoe-Bonnie & Khayum, 2003)... Health services also affect the quality of life. The death rates in the countries are higher than those in the developed countries making living standards in these nations lower than those in developed ones.
Finally, developing countries have a lower Gross Domestic product and per capita income. Most of goods and services consumed are imported from the developed countries (Baffoe-Bonnie & Khayum, 2003). The labour force, financial institutions and the markets in these countries are still being developed to offer a wide range of services and products (Baffoe-Bonnie & Khayum, 2003). Therefore the standards of living are lower than those in developed countries since the markets do not offer all products and service needed to maintain higher living standards.
Third world countries
Over time, economists have not clearly defined the meaning of third world. However the term is used to refer to the nations that have lagged behind in terms of development ranging from economic, political and the level of industrialisation (Smith, 1990). Examples of such nations include Ethiopia, Cuba Austria, Finland and Sweden.
The nations are basically characterised by low levels of human capital, urbanization, agricultural development, high levels of under nutrition and poverty, dominance of informal sector and underdeveloped labour market and the financial institutions (Smith, 1990). The countries experience the lowest levels of living standards. Healthy services in these nations are poor and mostly not accessible to the majority of the community.
The illiteracy level is at its highest level. Majority of the children grow up without attending any primary schools (Smith, 1990). Due to poorly developed industries and factories, the countries experience the highest unemployment rates (Smith, 1990). Therefore very few people earn income on a regular basis increase the level at which a working person is depended on by the family members and other relatives (Smith, 1990). All these situations and circumstances lead to high poverty levels in the community with a good population unable to meet their basic needs; food, shelter and clothing making the living standards very low or poor.
References
Baffoe-Bonnie, J. & Khayum, M. (2003). Contemporary economic issues in developing
countries. Westport, Conn.: Praeger.
Schilderinck, J. (2012). Factor analysis applied to developed and developing countries.
Rotterdam: Univ. Press.
Smith, T. (1990). Policy Evaluation in Third World Countries: Some Issues and Problems.
Asian Journal Of Public Administration, 12(1), 55-68.