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
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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
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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
5.
The primary function of the ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ██
a
offer a synthesis ██ ███ ████████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████
This is not descriptively accurate. The author does not synthesize opposing views. The countries described in P3 are focusing on human indicators, not using both human indicators and per capita GNP to inform their decisions.
b
expose the inadequacies ██ ████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████
This is not descriptively accurate. The author does not expose the inadequacies of using human indicators as a measure of economic health in P3, so this is not the purpose of the paragraph.
c
summarize the argument ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████
This is not descriptively accurate. P3 provides new information about how some countries have been acting; this isn’t just a summary of information that was already discussed.
d
correct a weakness ██ ███ █████████ ███████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████
This is not descriptively accurate. P3 does not correct a weakness in the political economists’ position. Instead, P3 shows how countries are responding to the information provided by human indicators, instead of only focusing on per capita GNP.
e
suggest policy implications ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███ ██████████
This is the purpose of P3. P3 shows how countries have been changing their actions to emphasize human indicators rather than per capita GNP; this is the policy implication of the argument that human indicators provide a more comprehensive view of economic health.