Essay Topic:

The analysis of the fact that economic development is greatly dependent of the technological progress and as the main development started occurring after the 1950’s this is the period that should be investigated in a very profound way.

Essay Questions:

What do life expectancy, the average income per person, and development of the education have to do with economical development?

What influence did the technological progress have on economical progress back in 1950’s?

What is professor DeGregori’s opinion of the economic development since 1950’s?

Thesis Statement:

The technological progress leading to the economic development of the post 1950’s time had a pre history in the events of the 1920-1040’s technological achievements.

Economic Development since 1950 essay

 

Table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. Economical development in the 50’s

3. After the 90’s development

4. Conclusion

“We need not less technology but more intelligent use of it”

Dr. Thomas P. DeGregori

Introduction: The process of economic development is a multi-sided one and requires a very intense approach. The well being provided by the economical development has three major goals: life expectancy, the average income per person, and development of the education. These three major spheres require a lot of technological progress in order to convert the economy into a developed one. It is possible to say that economic development is greatly dependent of the technological progress and as the main development started occurring after the 1950’s this is the period that should be investigated in a very profound way. The technological progress leading to the economic development of the post 1950’s time had a pre history in the events of the 1920-1040’s technological achievements. Dr. DeGregori in his “Origins of the organic agriculture debate” emphasizes three main progresses of the pre 1950’s period: the biodynamic farming in 1920’s, the movement of holism in 1926, and the organic farming in the 1940’s. As professor DeGregori in his work reveals mainly the agricultural side of the economic development through modern technology it is very hard to underestimate this side because the life expectancy of a person greatly depend on the food that the person consumes. Dr. DeGregori continues to underline the meaning of science for the well-being of the population and in his “Origins of the organic agriculture debate” says: “Many have tried to play the role of magus or magician…but it is the scientists who delivered”.

2. Economical development in the 50’s

All the time starting from the beginning of the 20th century the economic development and therefore the true well-being of people did not reveal any progress because of the techno-phobia that appeared in the head of the humanity. It all started with people being against milk pasteurization and continues in opposing food irradiation nowadays.The World War II greatly influenced the economic stability of each country. As the Nazis were immensely fascinated by everything natural it could not leave the world out of this “naturalistic& organic health” influence. In 1943 they promotion of the chemical-free agricultural goods was immense. All of these technological changes were simply the re-conditions of the changes that occurred in the 1950’s. According to Dr. DeGregori’s “Agriculture and modern technology: a defense”, in 1950 28.7% of children in the countries with a developing economy died before they got to the mark of being five years old.All of the revolutionary technological advances of 20th century have changed the life of contemporary people introducing bio-engineered food and tons of arguments around it. The ability to bio-engineered food created opportunities to grow more food of bigger sizes and therefore more products started being available. The most important figures that DeGregori emphasizes is the since the 1950 the quantity of population has even more than doubled, although 50 million people dies each year. It has been commonly believed after the WWII that any of the advances that change food or anything natural do truly bring damage to the health of the human race. Dr. DeGregori in his works shows that different kind of chemicals, including DDT and other pesticides do not bring the harm they are believed to, but actually prolong the lifespan of the human beings of the planet.

The economic development of the 1950’s till the present times brought technology to the lives of the humanity and therefore changed this life forever. As is has been mentioned before technological progress is the driving force of economic development and therefore all the myths connected to it should be destroyed to their core.

Ever since 1950 people started being obsessed with the fear that “non-natural” foods, pesticides, organic farming, fertilizers and the environmental pollution will hurt their health. This type of “techno-phobia” created an immense misunderstanding between the reality and the imaginary harm and damage that anything produced by modern technology brings.

3. After the 90’s development

Dr. DeGregori’s in his “Agriculture and modern technology: a defense”, claims that in 1996 8.8% of children in the countries with a developing economy died before they turned five years old. It is quite a change in comparison with the numbers of the 1950’s. This shows the immense improvement in the economic development throughout the post-war years. Stability that brought people back to live gave the opportunity to find jobs and be able to provide the families with everything essential. According to Dr. DeGregori’s “Agriculture and modern technology: a defense”, presenting the study by Funding First, reveals that the increase of the life expectancy so important for the economic development took about 57 trillion dollars from the economy of the United States of America.

Dr. DeGregori’s “Agriculture and modern technology” reveals new information concerning the positive contribution that genetically modified organisms – GMOs –made into the longevity in general and human health in particular. The truth is that the pesticides are able to control the insects, which are carriers of all type of diseases and are unstoppable by any other chemicals. The modern technology has also contributed into making the water people drink every day truly safe and it provides the nutritious food supplies so much needed nowadays. The other truth is that there is not proved evidence to the fact that all of the listed above do truly damage the human health. And until that moment the panic is absolutely senseless as it stops people from seeing the true results of the technological progress that stimulates the economic development.

Dr. DeGregori states that such misunderstandings occur due to the fact that the living generation does not remember what is hunger what it means to loose the harvest because of the terrible insects. The majority of people live in a “capsule” that deny the necessity to keep controlling all the spheres of their well-being. They feel protected but forget how fragile this protection can be if it comes to a serious disease. Contemporary people do not know what is not to get what they want at their first demand. And it is good, but this makes them argue a lot and especially on the matters they know nothing about but have heard on the news or read something in a magazine. The real problem is that people feel lazy about finding real scientific facts about what they talk about. Contemporary children have a lot to tell their parents about the pesticides and the fertilizers parent are so afraid of. People do not turn to qualified sources and this create further misunderstandings.

The economic development during all these years all the way from 1950’s till nowadays is tremendous. Nevertheless it goes without saying that a scientific propaganda is required in order to destroy the unscientific fact people believe in. This is completely proved by the fact listed in Dr. DeGregori’s Agriculture and modern technology”: the truth is that 99.9% of all toxins that a human body ingest appear as the products of nature and not the technological developing of the humans. Nevertheless people feel very preoccupied with stopping the technological progress and therefore the economic development that brings so many benefits for the contemporary societies. The successful economic development of each country is completely dependent on the application of biotechnology in every sphere of human development. If it were not for the technological progress half of the contemporary population would not exist nowadays. This “crude” fact should leave not hesitations in the minds of contemporary people. Technology saves humanity and creates the necessary products for keeping humanity in the state of well-being and therefore secures the economical development of each country.

4. Conclusion

The economic development since 1950’s has contributed a lot of changes in the modern life of the society. It has actually improved the quality and standards of life, making the life of ordinary citizens safer. Though some people nowadays are still afraid of the GMOs, fertilizers and pesticides without even knowing what those in reality are, still the economic development provided by technology has converted a human life into a guarded fortress. The economic development is an essential part of the life of the society of any contemporary country. Economic development by itself provides the possibility to extend the potential of the country in terms of education, life expectancy and average income.The importance of the economic development is dictated by the necessity to make the living standards higher and therefore to improve the living conditions of million of people. Economic development implies the growth of the country’s wealth that is designated to improve the well-being of the country’s citizens.Ever since the 1950’s a lot of changes have occurred in term of economic development, but the most vital fact is that more people have overcome the poverty line and increased their financial opportunities. All of these would not be possible without the development of technology. The modern world is constantly developing and the economic development of every given country implies the economical development of the humanity in general. So why not to accept the fact that technology is here to protect us and to give us a better future?