Development

Class 10 Economics

Different persons can have different developmental goals. What may be development for one may not be development for the other. It may even be destructive for the other.

Income and Other Goals

What people desire are regular work, better wages, and decent price for their crops or other products that they produce. In other words, they want more income.

Besides seeking more income, people also seek things like equal treatment, freedom, security, and respect of others. They
resent discrimination. All these are important goals. In fact, in some cases, these may be more important than more income or more consumption because material goods are not all that you need to live.

Money, or material things that one can buy with it, is one factor on which our life depends. But the quality of our life also depends on non-material things mentioned above.

For development, people look at a mix of goals. The developmental goals that people have are not only about better income but also about other important things in life.

National Development

Individuals seek different goals, then their notion of national development is also likely to be different.

For comparing countries, their income is considered to be one of the most important attributes. Countries with higher income are more developed than others with less income. This is based on the understanding that more income means more of all things that human beings need. Whatever people like, and should have, they will be able to get with greater income. So, greater income itself is considered to be one important goal.

Intuitively, the income of the country is the income of all the residents of the country. This gives the total income of the country. However, for comparison between countries, total income is not such an useful measure. Since, countries have different populations, comparing total income will not tell us what an average person is likely to earn.

Hence, we compare the average income which is the total income of the country divided by its total population. The average income is also called per capita income.

In World Development Reports, brought out by the World Bank, this criterion is used in classifying countries. The rich countries, excluding countries of Middle East and certain other small countries, are generally called developed countries.

Income and Other Criteria

When we looked at individual aspirations and goals, we found that people not only think of better income but also have goals such as security, respect for others, equal treatment, freedom, etc. in mind. Similarly, when we think of a nation or a region, we may, besides average income, think of other equally important attributes.