How Economic Growth Affects A Country

There are a number of arguments in regards to the impacts of economic growth. Is the country benefiting from the impacts of economic growth, or is it falling back because of it? Let me with you share some view points.

Positive:

1. Increase in income

As the market value of the goods and services produced by an economy increase, the profit of the country increases too. As more profit are being made, workers can be payed at higher income. This is the most direct consequence of economic growth. 

2. Higher standards of living

Having more money to spare, people can afford higher quality products, such as expensive cars, branded clothes, and dining in a first-class restaurant instead of taking away from food centres. Enjoying luxuries like this increases their standards of living. 

3. Efficient transport system

Improvement of transportation of the country will also be made for people to travel around the country easily. This is also an investment to tourism. Tourist can tour around the country more easily to explore more of its places of interest, thus contributing more to the economic growth of the country.  

4. Better education

As the pay of the people increases, they can afford, and will get a better education for their children to secure an ideal future for them. 

Negative:

1. Impact on environment

As the economic growth increases, the industrial factories multiply over time to ensure more goods can be produced and export to other countries. During the production, harmful gases such as carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide is given out, polluting the air and contributing to green house gases which will lead to global warming. There is also a rapid increase in waste production. Pollution of the environment causes harm to living organisms. Human beings with breathing difficulty will have problem surviving in the country which has a PSI of 400; increase in pH level in the sea harms some marine animals as they cannot adapt to the sudden change in pH level. As the ozone layer starts to deplete and the green house gases starts to increase, global warming is another problem to face. The mean temperature of the Earth increases, causes ice caps starts to melt and drowning innocent polar bears; increase in sea level which abandons the beautiful coral reefs; droughts and natural disasters starts showing up; forest fires which destroys home for wild animals and plants with medicinal values are lost; etc...

2. Differences in social status

While the rich can catch up with the fast changing economy, the poor cannot. When economic grows rapidly, the prices of goods will also shoot rocket-high. The rich business men and women in urban areas can bare the expensive prices, but the poor farmers in the rural areas will have difficulties in buying daily products to maintain their livelihood. As a result, the rich becomes richer (increase in income), while the poor becomes poorer. This widens the gap between the rich and the poor, creating a huge differences in social status of a country. 

To conclude, there are not only positive impacts, but also negative impacts of economic growth. Economic growth does improve the quality of life, but up to a point, it rather obstructs a sustainable living. 

~Kitty

what effect does economic growth have on the country and its population? -the number of unemployed will increase, as expectations for each person employing for a particular job has become higher, thus it is more difficult to get a job. -the price of items and food will increase greatly. -the price of housing and cost of living will increase greatly. -amount of offsprings ,ight decrease too as parents tend to focus more on fewer offsprings so that they will still have enough money for cost of living. hence, economic growth can bring upon benefits like the increase in rate of tourism, however it can also bring upon harm on the country.

The Great Wall of China

The Great Wall was originally built in the Spring and Autumn, and Warring States Periods as a defensive fortification by the three states: Yan, Zhao and Qin. It is built to protect the Chinese Empire or its prototypical states against intrusions by various nomadic groups or military incursions by various warlike peoples or forces. It also allows border controls, allowing the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road, regulation or encouragement of trade and the control of immigration and emigration. Several walls were being built as early as the 7th century BC, later joined together and made bigger and stronger, are now collectively referred to as the Great Wall. 

The Great Wall carries a considerable part of Chinese culture. It has long been incorporated into Chinese mythology and symbolism. Sad to say, the wall is becoming shorter and shorter day by day due to the natural erosion and human activity.

The size of the Great Wall is 21,196 km. It passes through 156 counties in ten cities or provinces including Liaoning, Hebei, Tianjin, Beijing, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai. 

-Zhi Yan

Family Structure and One Child Policy in China

In the past, many generations of the Chinese family live together under one roof, with at least two generations and up to three or four generations, or even five generations. Thus, 10-20 members in a household is very common. Chinese like to live together in big households. This tradition is probably caused by Confucianism, which emphasises on filial piety. In Confucian philosophy, filial piety is defined as a virtue of respect for one's parents and ancestors, in which he has to take care of his parents. Filial piety is also one of the rituals which is publicly recognized as behavioral norms. These norms are maintained by local community, the power of public opinion. Hence, a big family is usually held in great esteem because one is immersed in and defined by his social relationships. 

However, due to the strict One Child Policy implemented by the Chinese government, there is a great change in the way family is organised and structured in China today. Families are only allowed to have one children, in contrast to traditional Chinese families which have dozens. This is to address the problem of the drastic growth in population, which the government believe that it will lead to overpopulation in China. Each pair of couple can only have one children and no more than that. If the government finds out that the family has 2 or more children, their children will be killed or they will be fined heavily. Usually, Chinese families like male babies more because they think that males are more capable than females and heirs who will continue the family line. Hence, when they find out that their newborn child is a female, they would either abandon her somewhere, or infanticide would come into picture. Gender imbalance is also a major problem as large number of women would have abortions if they find out that they are pregnant with a female baby. 

Of course, there are also benefits of One Child policy. Firstly, families' expenditure is lesser, in terms of resources, as well as time and money. Problems such as overpopulation, overwhelmed social services i.e. education and health, abuse of fertile land and productions of high volumes of waste are prevented. Even so, I think these benefits cannot be compared to the human rights and lives of innocent children. Fortunately, in November 2013, the Chinese government announced that it would further relax the policy by allowing families to have two children if one of the parents is an only child. Deaths of innocent children are greatly reduced. 

Most Chinese do not agree with this familial reorganisation. They believe in human rights and that they should be the ones making the decision of how many children to raise and their fertility. On the other hand, there are also Chinese who are fine with the One Child Policy, because they are too busy pursuing their careers, so having one child is enough for them. Thus, there are different perceptions and attitudes toward this controversial issue. 

On the other hand, in Singapore, many married couples does not want to have children as the living cost in Singapore is extremely expensive. Consider the cost for milk powder, diapers, clothes, food, and later on education, etc. Thus, in order to increase the birthrates in Singapore, the Singapore government implemented 'Baby Bonus' packages, in which they will give certain amount of money for each baby given birth to. As compared to China, Singapore is afraid to have no successor to lead Singapore to greater heights in the future, whereas China is afraid of overpopulation.