The World Community (Grouping Countries)
An increase in international connections can be attributed to several factors:
Pages 407 to 410 questions 1-7
- People travel to more places
- Communication by phone and internet allows people to connect with others from anywhere to anywhere (global village)
- International trade is constantly expanding, with the economies between countries becoming increasingly linked together
- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per Capita: the value of the goods and services a country produces per person in one year
- Social Development: measured by comparing how long people live in each country, what kind of health care they receive, and what educational levels they reach
- These 2 factors can be used to divide up countries into 3 different groups:
- Developed Countries: these countries have the highest social and economical levels, and have these characteristics:
- Economics are based on the service sector, which are well developed (education, health care, banking, transportation etc.)
- Most became developed based on manufacturing, but this is less important to the economy now
- Primary industries are the least important part of the economy (value and providing jobs)
- Citizens have the highest standards of living (some of the poorest people live well compared to the average person in developing countries
- Some cons: while having only 20% of the world’s population, these countries use most of the world’s resources and produce most of the world’s pollution
- Developing Countries: these countries have the lowest levels of economic and social levels:
- Economics are dominated by primary industries, in particular agriculture
- Most new developments are focused on manufacturing
- Service sector of the economy is poorly developed (most people have little money to spend on services like phones, banks, and schools)
- Citizens earn little cash income, as most of their production is for their own use or traded to supply their needs
- Citizens do not pay taxes, so the government can’t provide money for education, health care, or economic development, and have to rely on foreign aid (money/food etc. given by one country to another country
- Newly Industrializing Countries: countries that are going through the process of becoming developed
- This process involves a complete change in the economy and lifestyle of the country over many years
- Example countries are Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore, which have each gone from the developing stage to the developed stages since WWII
- Developed Countries: these countries have the highest social and economical levels, and have these characteristics:
- What do terms like “progress” and “development” really mean? If a country increases its GDP per capita by spending money on military or industrial development that causes major environmental damage, it will increase GDP but might still cause harm to its citizens
- Not everything is reflected in a country’s GDP: a farmer who grows crops to feed his family will not be reflected in his country’s GDP, whereas a farmer who grows cash crops (like sugar or coffee) will bring money into his country’s GDP, but may not earn enough to feed his family
- Since there are only 3 groups, the individual countries in each group can be vastly different (1 may have few resources with a huge population, while a different country has an overabundance of natural resources)
- This system assumes that the level of economic and social development in a country is the same throughout the population, which is not the case (some few are billionaires, with others living on the streets)
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