Sumblog 5: The Tortoise and The Hare

In looking at economical progress, we addressed three different theories that could explain how the world functions in this aspect. The one I want to break down more is Modernization Theory, formulated by Herbert Spencer and Carl Marx in the 1940s. The main idea of this is that the transformation of countries is unidirectional and that each one follows the same path to success. Now, in the historical context this theory was formed right after World War II, so I understand that the powerful countries could been seen as a good modeling point. However, to think that a country's main wish is to become more like America or the other winning countries is foolish to me.

Every country offers it's own resources, regulations, and labor. It is unfair to say that all the aspects of one country are bundled together as they make their way down the one and only line of transformation. Looking at the world today, it would be ethnocentric to observe the world functioning in this way. In the video I included it discusses how even though we give approximately 50 billion dollars to other countries annually the approval rate of Americans is only 63%. The majority of residents in countries that disapprove of America come from those that receive money from us such as Egypt and Pakistan. In the news clip the reporter states that these countries may be feeling like it is America trying to put on Band-Aid on problems of the past. I would also argue that it has to do with it feeling like pity money. These countries want to work on their own wellbeing instead of being offered money that appears to the rest of the world as a helping hand.

The truth about it all and the true irony is that even though we are offering to help all these other countries to become more like us, we ourselves continue to raise our national debt. We cannot even function as a nation right now because our federal government is shut down on a dispute between raising the national debt more or not. Even the most "powerful" appearing countries have their own issues. Although America is viewed in the light of dominance, my point is we still do not have it all together. The world's countries are each taking this "race" at their own pace, where the finish line is in different locations. We are not all the same. Our paths to success aren't either. And success is defined by the country itself.
VIDEO---> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oiFH0pMGhI