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  • Essay / Economic gap between North and South

    Across the world, some countries are more economically developed than others. There are excellent, thriving economies and struggling, plummeting economies struggling to maintain their standards of living. The United States is an example of a country with a thriving economy. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. GDP grew significantly by 2% in the last quarter. When a country's GDP increases, economies benefit from essential momentum and progress. This increase in GDP demonstrates the value added to the economy. As a result, the standard of living increases, which means that citizens' incomes increase, allowing consumers to spend more on goods and services. An important factor of a booming economy is that there is some mutual balance between unemployment and inflation. Other factors to consider in determining whether the stability or instability of an economy are such as climate change, demographics, resource limitations, etc. A country that lacks resources due to poorly managed agriculture, pollution, poor quality of life, low GDP, etc., has a declining and declining economy. Naturally, these economic activities depend on geography or location, which logically explains why the North is more economically developed than the South. However, it also appears that people also play a major role in changing their standard of living and their economy. Depending on where a person resides, fortunately or unfortunately, determines their economy and standard of living. To analyze the gap between the North and the South, this essay discusses the economic development of the countries of the North and the South. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The world is divided into two hemispheres known as the North and South. The Global North includes the most economically developed countries, known as the First World countries. The Global South, however, represents the “economically backward” underdeveloped countries. The Global North includes regions such as North America, India, Europe, Israel, South Africa, etc. The Global South includes most of Africa, Mexico, China, India and other developing third world countries. Geography plays a major role in why the Global North is more developed and prosperous than the Global South, but it is not the main role. In the 1980s, the Brandt line, an invisible line, was developed. The line was developed as a "way of showing how the world was geographically divided into relatively richer and poorer nations" (Royal). According to Brandt, he found that Northern countries above the divide interacted successfully with others and had high levels of trade, "improving the quality of life of their populations" (Tait). However, over time, global changes occurred that affected these divided regions differently. Geography determines the socio-economic status of a country, however, the country's population can often be the reason why its economy is shaped the way it is. According to a case study by Elizabeth Wegman, Rwanda, which is a rural country in central and eastern Africa, is classified as a “low-income economy.” A large part of the Rwandan population lives below the poverty line. In countries in the Global South, such as Rwanda, there has been a history of violence and crime by local civilians, which has had the effect of deteriorating their economies. In the 1990s, Rwanda was associated with a civil warbetween the “African Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups”, resulting in genocide (Wegman). This civil war was the consequence of the death of the Rwandan president when his plane was shot down by the Tutsis. The Hutus, known as the people of Rwanda, fought the Tutsis when they found out. The genocide left more than 800,000 innocent people dead. This genocide had a negative impact on the economic life of Rwanda, which explains their current poverty. According to Lopez, about a quarter of Rwanda's population remains in poverty today as a result of the genocide. Poverty was at risk for Rwandans because the genocide had caused the destruction of livestock, property, resources (like livestock), and infrastructure. These types of violent conflicts last a long time because they can cause long-term damage to a country's economy. Repairing these conflicts could take several years. It is for this reason that some Rwandans voluntarily contribute to "rebuilding the country" by getting involved "in activities such as cleaning the streets, repairing buildings, offering services to those who do not have access ". Even though Rwanda is steadily progressing and recovering, making necessary repairs, Rwanda is still struggling to survive. Although Rwandans are heavily oriented towards agriculture, the problem of overpopulation makes access to fertile land difficult. This potentially means there is a food shortage and workers are not producing goods that consumers can buy. In Rwanda, “population growth and density remain high, threatening to strain and potentially harm economic growth” (Rwanda case study). Without the genocide, Rwanda's poverty rate would have fallen by about 20 percentage points. Rwanda's GDP would have been much higher than it is today, by 30 percentage points. Rwanda's history of war and violence has also helped shape Rwanda's government. It took a major war for Rwanda to change its government. Because Rwanda relies heavily on imports, the Rwandan government faces significant accounting deficits. The Rwandan government intends to take measures to improve the business climate. However, progress toward this economic freedom is hampered by institutional weaknesses. Their own judicial system lacks independence and transparency. The Global South is not as advanced and developed as the North because the Global South is not as concentrated in urban areas. They depend on a global agricultural economy, meaning they make a living from trading resources such as cash crops, livestock and food crops. Urban businesses are turning to new, advanced technologies to produce and develop their own resources and supplies. Urban areas have further minimized the economic and social risks associated with agriculture, such as facing wage demands or better measurement of their dividends and profits. The Global South today continues to experience an increasing rate of people working in more rural areas than the Global North. “65% of inhabitants of the South live in rural areas, compared to less than 27% in the North” (Odeh). As Rwanda shows, 58% of the workforce in the South is engaged in agriculture, while that in the North represents around 50% of the agricultural workforce (Odeh). The global South focuses more on agricultural production than the North, because the incomes of people in the South are considerably lower than those in the North. The Global South has major concerns it focuses on when it comes to food,housing and clothing, which is why it depends on the global North. The global North and the global South maintain international relations. The South is economically dependent on the North, which means that the South is more vulnerable and the North is more powerful and possesses strength that the South does not possess. “...technology, foreign aid and private capital are transferred to the Global South” (Odeh). This transfer is due to the increase in unemployment and the increase in income inequality in the countries of the South. Strauss and Thomas argue that this low productivity could be due to competitive work pressures and a lack of advanced technologies. Low productivity therefore means lower income. The countries of the South are considered unproductive members of society, which is why they are strongly supported by and dependent on the countries of the North. The Global North “accounts for more than 90% of all manufacturing industries in the world and controls approximately 80% of total earned income” (Ortiz-Ospina, Roser). Most countries in the Global North have an abundance of basic needs, such as food and shelter, as well as access to their higher education systems. Countries in the Global South are known to lack goods and services, such as food, clothing, shelter and more, to survive. They have limited resources due to their lack of income and wealth. Therefore, they are not able to easily purchase consumer goods compared to the North. The South faces challenges in terms of education systems. Northern countries place great emphasis on ensuring that their students acquire the best education possible. They help their students acquire multiple useful life skills to better prepare them for the outside world. Low-income classes in the Global South face problems such as getting their students to learn. Students in these countries have difficulty learning to read, write and learn the number system. Approximately “250 million young students” fail to receive an adequate education or attend school (Education World). Only recently have some of these countries been introduced to universal access to schooling. In 2004, birth and death rates were radically different between the South and the North (Odeh). In the Global South, the population has grown rapidly due to increasing birth rates, in contrast to the lower birth rates in the Global North. “In the North, birth rates are around 15 to 20 per 1,000 inhabitants, while in the South, birth rates vary between 30 and 40 per 1,000 populations” (Odeh). Rising birth rates typically occur because some countries in the Global South cannot afford contraceptives. Along with rapid birth rates in the Global South, the death rate is increasingly higher than in the Global North. Among the main causes of these deaths in these less developed countries are HIV/AIDS, malaria and heart disease. According to the CDC, "approximately 3.3 million (30%) deaths per year were due to heart disease, 2.3 million (21%) to cancer... 9 million (8%) to chronic respiratory diseases, and 0. 8 million (7%) to violence. causes. » According to Odeh, children under 15 represent around 40% of the total population in the South, unlike in the North, where children under 15 only represent around 20% of the total population. What does this mean for the South? Their workforce is most likely supported by young adolescents and is referred to as "economic dependency", meaning that some people in these Global South sometimes depend on young adolescents for.