November 15, Just Random Thoughts on Sustainable Development

Today, I had a class with Dr. Abell, a RC professor who is absolutely passionate about economy and environment. The class was about the sustainability of an economic development. After reading the Introduction of "Beyond Growth" by  Daly, I have been swimming in the sea of thoughts, all about the sustainable development.

At some point of the class, an issue of making the poor country have more economic growth is brought up. According to the World Bank, in order to make the South grow, the North will have to create markets so that the South can export their products to the North. Daly's concern was that the North only needs economic "development", but not the economic "growth". However, for the economic growth of the South, the economic growth of the North will have to grow at the same time, creating opportunities for the South.

However, are the South really developing? I don't really think so. Underdeveloped countries have been scarifying too much for their economic "growth", but the sacrifice is not worth its benefits. Yes, the debts are paid off by the money they get from the sacrifice. Yet, the sacrifice is way too big that the people from these underdeveloped and developing countries are suffering a lot.

As the lecture continued, a question popped up in my head. "How do you know if a country is poor?" We are using the international standard to decide if a country is poor or not. In fact, people from some poor countries are still happy. They don't need any economic growth to make their lives happier. However, we all are assuming that they NEED economic growth no matter what.

In my opinion, these so-called developing and underdeveloped countries might or might not need any further  so-called "growth". I think it will be more appropriate to have individual standards for different countries. If a country is "poor", it does not necessarily mean that its citizens are not happy. What we need to work on is narrowing down the gap between rich and poor in a country, but not making a country work and consume like a developed country.

These are just my opinions. They might be baseless; however, I think it is a little bit more logical.

In my view, making all the countries developed is as not feasible as making the Earth a bigger planet.