▶ Your Answer : A large number of people might think that rapid development has had a positive influence on our society. After the Korean war, the economic situation in Korea was worse than that in Africa. However, Korea has accomplished incredibly fast economic growth and most Korean people are proud of it. Contrary to this popular belief, however, I would like to point out that rapid growth of a country is not always good for the following two reasons.
First of all, fast development can lead to bigger gap between the rich and the poor. Such gap has been one of the most serious problems in our world. Even though the overall economic level has been elevated, comparative deprivation of poor people today is much bigger than in the past. The society that broadens the gap between the rich and the poor is unjust and undesirable world. Therefore, rapid development, which causes such gap cannot be told to be good for our society. According to a study conducted by Seoul National University in 2002, countries that made a dramatic growth tend to show comparatively big gap between the rich and the poor.
Secondly, in order to accomplish such rapid growth of a country, political injustice is unavoidable. Through democratic decision making, no one can raise economic level quickly. Thus, to make rapid development, a society needs a person who decides almost everything concerning national affairs and is responsible for it. We call that kind of person, "dictator". In an autocratic society, many people experience injustice while rapid development is possible. For example, Korea underwent dictatorship in the period of fast growth in economic level.
In conclusion, I firmly believe that rapid economic growth is not necessarily good for a society for the reasons I mentioned above. The side effects such as bigger gap between the rich and the poor and injustice from dictatorship cannot be underestimated. |