Band 7+: Economic progress is one way to measure a country's success. Some people believe that there are other factors that should be considered when measuring the success of a country. What are the other factors? Do you think there is a factor that is more important than the others?

Economic development is a common yardstick to measure a nation’s success, but there are other important indicators such as education, crime, unemployment and poverty. Deciding which factor is the most important should depend on the economic situation of the country.

It would be inaccurate to measure a country’s success based solely on its economic advancement. This is because many governments either overlook or condone pernicious economic activities due to short-term financial incentives. For example, they may allow large corporations to acquire farmers’ land to build factories, taking away these people’s jobs and subsequently worsening the problem of unemployment. Similarly, many local governments pay scant attention to education, poverty eradication and crime prevention, all of which are key to economic sustainability. Therefore, a more multifaceted measurement must be used to accurately tell how much a country has developed. This means that besides making economic progress, a country is only thriving if there are also low levels of illiteracy, crime, unemployment and poverty.

The decision to focus on developing one of the areas mentioned above is contingent upon the country’s economy. As for underdeveloped and developing countries, economic success is certainly their primary aim. Even though they are faced with countless other problems like poverty, crime and illiteracy, only economic growth can improve these areas. This can be seen in the way Vietnam invested heavily on the tourism industry to propel its economy and used economic gains to eradicate literacy, starvation and poverty later. However, developed countries must prioritize environmental protection, crime prevention, and unemployment and poverty eradication to improve the living standard of all citizens. For these countries, economic growth is only secondary.

In conclusion, a range of factors should be taken into account when one measures the success of a country. Deciding whether one factor is more important than the others should be dependent on the economic status of the country.