Country must grow in all regards
However, through my studies and travels these past four months, I've learned that while rapid economic growth can do great things for the country as a whole, it does not come without a multitude of problems — problems that both the U.S. and competitive emerging markets should be aware of.
First, growth in infrastructure should come with a modification of human behavior. A large problem in quickly developing countries is that society and the economy are not growing at equal paces; that is to say that the people are still applying old practices to new grounds.
Newly constructed buildings are unable to be maintained for extended periods of time because people are not properly made aware of how to take care of them. Habits that were practiced in the slums, such as littering or spitting on the streets, have not been rectified to fit new environments. Lack of sufficient behavioral change causes difficulty in maintaining improved facilities.
Second, countries with rapidly developing economies, namely economies that started out originally very poor, have a tendency to be very focused on gaining more wealth, turning a blind eye to many other important things by which the quality of a nation is measured, such as human rights. In China, labor laws are in place but are frequently abused.
Minimum wage violations are ubiquitous, and poor treatment of workers, typically in the rural areas, is common. Whether it's due to corruption or a simple disregard for the fundamental well-being of the people, the governments should not leave something as necessary as efficient law enforcement near the bottom of the priority list. Wealth cannot exist where a working legal system doesn't.
Lastly, in rapidly growing economies, wealth is often hoarded. In China's case, because of the country's extensive history of poverty, people who go from rags to riches — and there are many of them — develop a strictly self-serving mindset, one that propels them into extreme materialism without any sense of philanthropy. Concepts of homeless shelters, soup kitchens and fundraising drives simply do not exist in China, thus wealth stays with the rich and rarely filters down to the lower socioeconomic strata.
These problems, lost in the excitement and competition of China's rapidly growing market, are rarely addressed but extremely important, not just to economic development but development of society as a whole.
As countries with a rapidly growing gross domestic product continue to scale the financial ladder of the world, they should remember that while increased exports and manufacturing may cause growth in national wealth, true growth comes from within, and monetary growth, if not coupled with the appropriate societal growth, will only cause problems as time goes on.
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