GPP Week 3 - What is Underdevelopment Flashcards
What is Development?
,,,
Problems with Economistric Conceptions of “Development”
All values are assessed in terms of profit
o War can be profitable
o Unemployment (“underutilization of productive
capacity”) can be functional (and profitable)
o Charging high prices for life (water, food, healthcare,
seed, access to land, etc.) can be profitable
o Wasted societal resources of advertising
o Destroying the environment can be profitable - for lots of folks, it’s logical. maximizes their profits. irony is that global warming is here.
o Democracy can be costly and inefficient - how? - bad for business? lot of bureaucracy is associated with making sure that everyone has a say. if running transantial company - bribing distators in columbia. everyone wants stability. if we have gov’t changing access, laws, whether we can access certain lands etc., that is bad for business. hence a lot of incentive for more dictatorships if profit is the ultimate desire
Problems with Economistic
Conceptions of “Development”
■Economic crises (recession depression, inflation, price
spikes, mass layoffs, etc.) are endemic to the system - firing people
■ Suffering is endemic to the system of capitalism
– It has never abolished or ameliorated poverty. - as a system, creating more poverty in england instead of in England.
– Structurally, it is not even considered. In other words,
all social welfare policies push back against
(capitalist) economistic logics - if raise taxes to give money for unemployment, make universities free, etc - this is all bad for business, hence economy. majority of conceptions for goals for marginalizing has been demolished.
What is Underdevelopment?
“[U]nderdevelopment is not the absence of development”
but rather a comparative statement between societies. It
is always relative to others and not a finite state.
o [In this sense, a widening gap between wealthy and
poor nations erases any increases in average
incomes, GNP, GDP, etc….because comparatively,
they are falling further behind]
o For this reason, these are not “developing”
countries (Rodney 14) - that would imagine that the gap in the graph is closing but in reality it’s not. there is no developing - only under developing.
What is Underdevelopment?
For Rodney, “underdevelopment” is also a relationship of
exploitation. The wealthy nations of the world are wealthy
because of their long, continuous and consistent
patterns of resource extraction from the developing world
(Rodney 14) - rodney was killed and assassinated, very radical. argues forcibly that underdevelopmentalism is part of exploitation. if you grew up — everything you have isn’t truly because of hard work but extracted resources from the rest of the world. stolen wealth builds our wealth. from the time of the slave trade, resources flowing from poorest parts of the world to the richest - this is NOT development, this is neo-colonialism.
– Asian and African societies were developing
independently until imperialist, capitalist and colonial
exploitation began to ship their surpluses to Europe.
Causes Mistaken for Consequences
o Western countries note that Africa has little skilled
personnel. True, but that is not the cause of its
underdevelopment, but a consequence (e.g. all the social
forces that lead to a “brain drain” and the legacy of horrible
education systems built by Europeans) (Rodney 21) - “problem” is that they need more educated inidivuals like doctors, engineers etc - 1) colonial power is doing nothing for the schools that they’ve built, the schools are disasters. 2) if you are in one of these poor countries, and you get some education, why would you stay for 1/5 of a salary you would get in england, you would move to help your family more. hence people were being trained and getting sent to the West for a better “future” hence this is a consequence of imbalance of power
o Economies are not doing well. True. But rich nations control
the prices for raw materials (low) and finished goods (high)
… declining terms of trade and debt are an inevitable
consequence of this. - all countries exist on a continuaism of support they received. some countries have more social assistance, US doesn’t get a lot of social assistance hence the increase in poverty. a lot of other countries did a lot more for their poor. it’s not the case of capitalism and not capitalism - its that relative rates matter. always structurally creating poverty every time.
there is a country statistically speaking that has abolished poverty in the last 15 years: china! - gov’t is not hands off, china has a lot of capitalist elements, have not followed the models of the development industry. 70 years of undefeated failure.
Causes Mistaken for Consequences
Underdeveloped nations (despite Western narratives)
are not poor because of a lack of resources, they are the most resource-rich areas of earth… they just control
little of their own resources because of the legacy of
Western encounter. - just don’t have enough stuff, minerals, oils. some “wealthy” incredibly poor. it’s never been about having resources, it’s about control of resources.
■ Loans are not “aid.” They are enormously lucrative
speculation opportunities for Western profiteers…
interest is paid (they are not a gift) (Rodney 23) - huge industry because of student loans and the interests that come after graduating
continued - causes mistaken
From colonialism to today, banking, shipping, insurance
companies, mines, factories, railways and power stations
are owned by foreigners… and any attempt to remedy this
colonial injustice (nationalization) is met with fierce
resistance and sometimes force. - “good luck” - going to be hard to be out of the traps of underdevelopment. anybody that tries to mash with these resources are meant with violence. when resources get nationalized by countries, western interferences are close behind. destabilizing trade relationships… - does take the form of assassination or fighting oppositions that are well-funded. rodney’s picture is very similar in latin america and other countries..
– This siphons the wealth of Africa to the West
– [And often another presumed cause of
underdevelopment (political “instability” or coups) is
really a consequence of underdevelopment as these
nations are not strong enough to repel foreign
invasions or supported coups.] - “these countries just don’t have stability - can’t develop when you have stuff going on (rebuttal) but the reason this is happening is foreign interference and that is a way of a mistaking causes of underdevelopment and causes of underdevelopment are not to be found by looking at any economic books, that’s a silly way to understand.. there are stages that we move through progressively to preconditionally take off in high modern where you can spend whatever you want.
