Economic Growth & Prosperity

Class: Academic English Class 1 – AEn01

Topic: Economic Growth & Prosperity

Name: Vi Nguyen Phu Nhat

Topic: The GDP growth and rising incomes in Asia will bring prosperity to the

region. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Introduction

This paper shows that Asia’s growing wages and GDP growth will not result in the

region’s prosperity. A number of reasons and evidence will be presented to support

this. Firstly, GDP is not an accurate calculation in showing the economic background

of a country. Secondly, the increase in GDP and wages might include activities which

negatively impact the environment. Thirdly, gross domestic product (GDP) and

income growth do not ensure the positiveness of well-being. The opposing view

suggests that the capacity to access many of the inputs for a meaningful life is

measured by GDP, which does not directly assess those things that make life valuable.

However, income inequality and economic inequality which are results of the growth

in GDP and income prevent people from having the same standard of living. These

arguments show that the prosperity of the region will not be influenced by the

development of GDP and rising incomes in Asia.

Background & Definition

Asia has seen a tremendous transition in terms of economic advancement and

people’s living standards during the last half–century, beginning in the late 1960s. It

contributed to 30% of global GDP, 40% of manufacturing worldwide, and over 33%

of global trade (Nayyar, 2019). However, between 1990 and 2013, South Asia’s

proportion of the global poor climbed from 27.3 percent to 33.4 percent (Bourguignon

& Morrisson, 2002). GDP has been used as a measure tool for economic growth

around the world for a long time and is defined as “the total monetary or market value

of all the finished goods and services produced within a country’s borders in a specific

time period” (Fernando, 2021). Despite this, the GDP calculator neglects some

elements that take into account welfare because according to Sandrine Dixson–

Declève, the calculation of prosperity includes high levels of individual wealth,

resource utilization, and educational attainment.

Body

Firstly, GDP fails to represent the whole picture of the economy. GDP does not

include economic activities in black market, cash–in-hand payments, tax evasion, and

goods and services without market price. When it comes to assessing production in an

economy, every economics textbook would concede that GDP is faulty (Tziamalis,

2018). Due to the fact that statistical office estimates of the shadow economy are

frequently unavailable, provided with a large time lag, costly, incomparable

worldwide, and opaque (Dybka, Kowalczuk, Olesiński, Torój, Rozkrut, 2019), the

distribution of the shadow economy to the overall GDP growth is inaccurately

calculated.

Secondly, illegal actions that have a harmful impact on the environment may be

included in the rise in GDP and salaries. Increased productivity and consumption will

lead to an increase in the consumption of nonrenewable resources, a rise in pollution,

global warming, and the possible disappearance of natural ecosystems (Pettinger,