In class, we've been discussing class a lot lately. But what if, instead of a class system in America, there was a global class system with each country representing a person. For example, would America be upper class? What about Mexico, the country right below us? Even with their close proximity, would they be lower class? What about China? They come from poverty, but they are on the rise. Would they be fulfilling the "American dream" of moving from one class to a higher one?
I think that if we looked at class from a global perspective, many things are the same as the class system in America. One example mentioned today in class would be how the rich can avoid the poor. In Great Gatsby, the ash-area is right next to the eggs, but the rich are never really exposed to it. If the world had a class system, I think America would ignore Mexico or try to separate itself from the poverty in central America and the Caribbean as much as possible. We do this even today. Americans may see a clip on the news about a hurricane in the Caribbean, but then switch channels and completely forget about it.
But would American claim itself as "middle class" as most upper class people tend to do? I think we would because there are certain responsibilities with being on top such as providing affordable health care to other countries. By not admitting we are on the top, we would avoid these responsibilities.
Another aspect of the class system is happiness. According to Newsweek, we are the 23rd most happiest country. Here is the list:
Country: population, life expectancy, GDP per capita
1. Denmark: 5.5 million, 77.8 yrs, $34,600
2. Switzerland, 7.5 million, 80.5 yrs, $32,300
3. Austria, 8.2 million, 79 yrs, $32,700
4. Iceland, 300,000, 80 yrs, $35,600
5. Bahamas, 303,800, 65.6 yrs, $20,200
6. Finland, 5.2 million, 78.5 yrs, $30,900
7. Sweden, 9 million, 80.5 yrs, $29,800
8. Bhutan, 2.3 million, 55 yrs, $1,400
9. Brunei, 380,000, 75 yrs, $23,600
10. Canada, 33 million, 80 yrs, $34,000
23. America, 303 million, 78 yrs, $46,000
Of all these countries, America has the highest GDP. Yet we are #23. Bhutan, the poorest country from the list, is 15 places higher. This once again proves that money does not equal happiness.
1 comment:
Bernadette,
Thanks for your post. Here’s some more ideas to fuel your thinking:
1. Bhutan statistics which you did not mention: 63% work in agriculture – primarily forestry and subsistence farming; infant mortality rate is over 8 times that of the US (52/1000 vs. 6/1000); literacy rate is 47% (over half the population cannot read); there is only one television station and less than 5% have access to the Internet.
2. Prompted in part by statistics such as those, economists have created a Human Development Index which attempts to compare countries on measures other than purely economic ones -- United Nations data shown visually at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UN_Human_Development_Report_2007_%282%29.svg
Another “map” from the World Bank: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:World_Bank_income_groups.svg
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