Governments should focus on the wll-being of ther populations rather Essay

Governments should focus on the wll-being of ther populations rather than economic growth. To what extent do you agree whith thi - Essay Example This paper is therefore designed to illustrate why and how proper balances of population well-being and economic growth should be facilitated by governments. This will be illustrated by first examining how economic growth policies can be detrimental to a population’s well-being. Secondly, this paper will examine trends in satisfaction and how well-being and economic growth perform in those trends. Speth (2008) informs that the belief that fast and abundant economic growth often comes at the price of the environment (p. 24). This approach to economic growth, while attending to the immediate well-being of the population does not take into account the well-being of future generations who will ultimately have to deal with a â€Å"perilous state environmentally† (Speth 2008, p. 24). Far too often economic policies do not take account of the sacrifices to the environment. Governments in a desire to advance economic growth place far too much emphasis on technology and far too little emphasis on the cost to the environment (Speth 2008, p. 24). Acknowledging that economic growth and modern technology are necessarily intertwined in an increasingly global economy, but at the potential cost to the environment, there must be a proper balance. ... The latter implies a responsible use of the earth’s resources for economic development. By taking this approach, the government is not only ensuring economic wealth, but looking ahead to ensure that the population’s well-being and economic growth both equally protected. Norberg (2010) also takes the position that economic growth policies have focused far too much on â€Å"simply maximising production† (p. 2). Like Speth (2008), Norberg (2010) argues that this approach to government policies does not take account of the environmental costs. As a result, warnings about environmental issues, particularly global warning are changing the way that populations perceive wealth. This together with the recent global financial crisis has cultivated a lack of confidence in how well economic growth and more especially GDPs measure the well-being of populations (Norberg 2010, p.2). Norberg (2010) demonstrates why a proper balance is required to be made between economic growth and the population’s well-being. If one take the position that the environment is just as important to the population’s well-being as economic growth, it will serve no purpose to trade one for the other. For example, Norberg (2010) argues that the Happy Planet Index (HPI) introduced by the New Economics Foundations in 2006 indicates that populations in the wealthiest Western nations rank lower on the HPI than countries in Asia and Latin America (Norberg 2010, p. 5). The obvious difference here is the greater degree of development in the Western countries which necessarily correlates with greater modernization and the corresponding damages to the environment. Countries in Asia and Latin America are obviously not as developed and therefore

Fast Food Effects Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Fast Food Effects - Essay Example However, fast foods have been proven to have a myriad of effects both positive and negative, while the culture of fast foods is considered to have revolutionized the feeding habits of the American public, it has come under harsh criticism because of the detrimental health effects they have on health among them obesity and diabetes. However, being cognizant of this, the fast food outlets have become more sensitive to the nutritional needs of consumers and have included â€Å"health† fast foods in their menus and even going as far as regulating the amount of salt one can consume. Considering the low pricing, people are often encouraged to buy fast foods and consume them on a regular basis. However, regular consumption of fast foods often results in obesity especially in children, bearing in mind that many of eth foods are high calories such a fries and chicken, which is often deep fried, as result the may end up consuming more calories than their bodies can burn. As a result, their body fat will increase and this will lead to weight gain, and this often has detrimental health effect on the consumer. People with office jobs are more prone to this since they spend all day sitting down and eat packed sandwiches, fries and sodas, due to lack of physical activity, they quickly gain weight and in many cases, this portends health complications in posterity. Consumption of fast foods on a regular basis especially foods rich in simple sugars can lead to insulin resistance; this occurs when the pancreas is not transforming sugars into carbohydrates and energy. Insulin resistance is a precise to diabetes type 2 that occurs when the levels of blood sugar increases (Trembla). This often results to ill health, and one becomes prone to other health complications since diabetes weakens the body’s immunity. This is made worse if someone was already overweight, since it becomes hard for them to engage in