Self-study
P1
Many political economists believe that the soundest indicator of the economic health of a nation is the nation's gross national product (GNP) per capita—a figure reached by dividing the total value of the goods produced yearly in a nation by its population and taken to be a measure of the welfare of the nation's residents. ███
Economists' perspective ·
Best indicator of nation's economic health is gross national product (GNP) per person
GNP per person = total value of goods produced per year divided by population.
Critique ·
Human indicators are more important than GNP in measuring nation's welfare
Lists examples of human indicators. Nutrition, life expectancy, infant mortality, access to various resources such as water, education, medicine, and more.
P2
███ ██████████ ██████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ████ ███████ ██ █ ████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████████ ████ ████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███
Economists' response ·
Improvements in GNP cause improvements in human indicators
Rebuttal 1 ·
Some nations have high GNP, but but low human indicators
Rebuttal 2 ·
GNP doesn't measure distribution of benefits
Nations can have high GNP even if economic benefits go to a small minority of the population.
P3
██ █████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ████████████ ██ ████████ █████████ ████ ███████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ███ ███████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███ █████████ ████ █████████ ████ ██████ █ █████ ██ █████ ████ ████ █████ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ████████ ███████ ██ █████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ███████████ ███ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ ████ ██ █████ ████████
What some nations do ·
Focus on improving human indicators, not GNP
They recognize that material wealth should not be sole indicator of economic health.
Passage Style
Critique or debate
2.
The term "welfare" is used ██ ███ █████ █████████ ██ █████ ████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
the overall quality ██ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ █ ██████
This is the meaning. The author mentions residents’ welfare in the context of the explanation of how per capita GNP may not be a comprehensive representation of economic health. This shows us that “welfare” is used in reference to residents’ overall quality of life, not just their economic situation.
b
the services provided ██ ███████████ ██ █ ██████████
While this is a definition of welfare, this is not how it’s used in the context of the first paragraph.
c
the material wealth █████ ██ ███████████ ██ █ ██████
In the first paragraph, the author is saying that there’s a lot more that goes into welfare than just economic factors, so we know that “welfare” in this context doesn’t just refer to economic factors. (C) only mentions an economic factor (material wealth).
d
the extent to █████ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████ █████ ███████████ ██ █ ██████ ██ ████████
The idea of wealth distribution isn’t even mentioned until the end of the second paragraph, so we know that “welfare” doesn’t mean wealth distribution when it’s used in the first paragraph.
e
government efforts to ████████████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ██ █ █████
The idea of wealth redistribution is not relevant to the discussion of welfare in the first paragraph, so we know that this isn’t the definition of “welfare” in this context.