Economic Growth and National Prosperity in Asia môn Principle of Management | Trường Đại học Quốc tế, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

Introduction
This paper will demonstrate how economic growth in Asia defines national prosperity and
the relationship between prosperity, income growth, and GDP in Asia. Several arguments
will be presented to provide more information on this topic as well as a variety of evidence
that will support the claim that economic growth has adverse effects. Firstly, economic
expansion will exacerbate threats to the environment. Secondly, it is uncertain that GDP or
rising income would enhance social well-being in a country and it may bring on social
concerns as well as other issues. Thirdly, there is economic inequality which expands the
income disparity between the rich and poor and the burdens that the lower social classes
have to endure. A counterargument for the topic is that the growth of GDP makes workers
and entrepreneurs better off because increasing GDP shows that more valuable goods and
services have been generated, which should represent better human progress.
Nevertheless, the response is that GDP is vulnerable to broken–window fallacy signals of
increasing prosperity while the devastation has already happened and GDP fails to take
account of commodities and services that are not traded in the market. he developed economy
brings great motivation to society, attracts foreign investment, helps to improve many aspects
of life as well as GDP growth and income increase will bring significant prosperity to the he developed economy
brings great motivation to society, attracts foreign investment, helps to improve many aspects
of life as well as GDP growth and income increase will bring significant prosperity to the Definitions and background:
Thanks to decisive and excessive fiscal and monetary policy measures, developing Asian
economies have exhibited significant growth over the past 30 years and successfully
overcame the 2008/2009 global economic crisis. Even though it is swiftly catching up,
developing Asia still has lower per capita. The average Asian's income was above a
quarter of the global average in 1980 and it has increased to about two-thirds by 2009. The
development of Asian economies during the past 30 years has significantly altered both the
global and regional economies, and it is anticipated that Asia's performance over the next
few decades would have a similar impact. Income refers to the payment received by an
individual or organization in exchange for goods and services. Income may have a variety
of definitions that depends on different contexts such as taxation, financial accounting, or
economic analysis. Economic growth i s a rise in the economic output of goods and
services over a given time period when compared to the previous one (The Investopedia
Team, 2021).GDP stands for gross domestic product, which is the market value of final
products and services generated within a country in a particular time period. GDP is a
measure of both the total income of the entire population in the economy and the total
expenditure on the economy's output of goods and services at once. (N. George Mankiw,
2020). Gross national product is an estimate of the total net worth of all the finished goods
and services produced over a given time period by the virtue of production that is owned
by people living in a country. (The Investopedia Team, 2022). According to Cambridge
Dictionary, prosperity is the condition of being successful and wealthy. (Cambridge
Dictionary, n.d.). Economic prosperity refers to the competitiveness, security, and economic
progress of a nation. The prosperity of an economy plays a major role since it is a crucial
component of the quality of life and is also essential for a country to compete in the
worldwide economy. (Vision of Humanity, n.d) Body
The first argument in opposition to the topic is that the growth of the economy results in
severe repercussions for the environment and the quality of people’s life. The burden on
the forests is mitigated because of the increase in income, whereas damage from the high
level of CO2 emission and mineral exploitation is rising. In addition, it is revealed that
growing trade puts more strain the nature (Aşıcı.2013) to fulfill social needs and extreme
exploitation that causes global warming and does damage to the environment seriously.
Environment erosion has been associated with the progress of the economy in South East
Asian countries due to excessive industrialization, which is followed by urbanization and
export expansion (Iwami, 2001). The tremendous rise in the materials, fossil fuels, and
biomass consumed by the world's economy is to blame for this unsustainable pressure on
the Earth. In the 20th century, the number of materials that fuel the world’s economies
surged by 800% as well as a considerable rise in the amount of garbage that was
discharged into the environment. The
extraordinary growth in the economy, in which
advantages and disadvantages have been distributed strikingly around the world, seems to
be what drove all of this (Victor, 2010). Therefore, extravagant development guidance will
bring on unfavorable consequences that impact heavily on people’s standard of living as well as the environment.
Another argument is that the rise in GDP and income does not imply that social welfare,
prosperity, and happiness would be improved. For ages, economists have been attempting
to figure out a way to evaluate general welfare and compare it across the nations. However,
economists have recognized that GDP is a flawed indicator of well-being because it only
accounts for the value of products and services exchanged in the market (Bannister,
Mourmouras, 2018). It is evident that the underprivileged in Indonesia do not benefit from
economic growth by having look at the restricted access to security including health and
pension, the outsourcing of jobs, and income inequality (Iqbal, 2015). Since the
government has not prioritized resolving problems and spending on social welfare, the
prosperity of some countries has not grown. As a result, the economy has continued
developing but the citizen’s quality of life has not enhanced.
Finally, the argument is that income inequality is resulted from the expansion of the GDP
and the rising income. GDP fails to reflect how income is distributed across society- a
problem that is increasingly crucial in the modern world owing to broadening the gap
between developed and developing countries. Policymakers ought to take this concern into
consideration when evaluating development, as economic inequality is contributing to a rise
in societal discontentment and growing polarization (Kapoor, Debroy, 2019). The expanding
gap between the wealthy and the impoverished will make it more challenging for individuals
from lower social classes to resist unexpected crises. Counterargument
Economic growth takes a leading role when assisting policymakers, entrepreneurs, and
investors in comprehending the economy’s condition, so it can be widely utilized to
compare various countries and regions. Moreover, the increase in GDP will enhance the
standard of living of workers as well as businesses, since rising GDP is a sign of economic strength (Masterson, 2022). Response
The response is that GDP cannot calculate intangible goods and services such as the black
market, cash-in-hand payment, and tax evasion (Drudy, n.d). Additionally, the broken-
window fallacy, which provides misleading indications of increasing prosperity while there
has been visible destruction, is extremely prone to affect GDP (Masterson, 2022) Conclusion
This paper shows that the GDP growth rate not only has adverse effects but also enhances
people’s quality of life. The given arguments indicate that GDP is an imperfect
measurement of a nation’s well-being because of the income disparity among people, the
absence of intangible goods and services, and the desire to boost GDP all have detrimental
impacts on the environment and happiness metrics. Thus, the government should
concentrate on reducing and solving problems such as income inequality and improving the
living standard of the citizens in order to make the country prosperous.