Uneven Development

Uneven Development

            Without a doubt, the present-day world has experienced immense development and impressive technological advancement. These advancements are translated into and reflected by beautiful trends, such as the global reduction in the poverty rate, as well as the improved life expectancy (Li, 2016). It is, therefore, puzzling to note that over one billion people still live in abject poverty and various parts of the globe have not benefited from the technological advancement reported in other quarters of the world. There are people in the world who are incredibly vulnerable and have a challenge of securing livelihood in the same globe that others experience abundant surplus. As Li observes, the narrative of imminent development has failed. It is no longer tenable as it only favoured one aspect of the world, the capitalists while it condemned others into chronic under-produced circumstances and surviving in insufficient ways (Li, 2016). The purpose of this paper is to examine the uneven development currently experienced in the globe critically. It also highlights the features that significantly undermine the narrative that all people would soon experience a natural progression from low productivity to high productivity which would, in turn, bring prosperity to all.  Certain features indicate that development in the world has been skewed towards some areas. In contrast, other areas continue to witness acute shortage in almost everything, such as diseases, misinformation and underproduction.

Various aspects and conditions of development have not been replicated across the globe to necessitate even development.  The imbalance in industrialization, urbanization and material production has only favoured a class of people. The living standards of the people greatly vary even in the countries with advanced economies (Li, 2016). In essence, the rapid development of economies has not carried along the entire population but has in effect left the majority of people in unfavorable conditions.  The applications of the envisioned development ingredients of capital, science and technology have not helped the situation either – only serving to widen the already existing gap (Escobar, 2012). Escobar believes that the kingdom of progress, abundance and prosperity that was promised by the theorists and political class together with strategies and dialogues employed to create a uniformly developed globe brought precisely the opposite.  Massive underdevelopment, colossal impoverishments and untold oppression remain the headline after years of economic progress.

Modelling development in the line of capitalism is to blame for the uneven development witnessed in the globe today. There has been tremendous growth of huge high-tech, service and information economy that is producing a lot of profit to a few individuals and at the same time creating very few jobs. The majority of people qualified in diverse sectors and which are viable to work are unable to find jobs for which they are well overqualified. A considerable part of the population is locked out of establishing a viable means of finding livelihood for themselves. A majority of people who were compelled to leave their lands during the industrial development periods in countries, such as Zambia or South Africa can no longer benefit from the industries. This is because their labour is not wanted anymore in the very industries that made them landless (Li, 2016).

In certain countries such as India, millions of unemployed yet educated crowd cities and towns peddling their CVs hoping that they would get decent jobs to sustain them. The investment they made was solely in education, hoping that after graduation, their academics would pay back and assist their families. Several scholars agree that the problem of uneven development has a population that is surplus in regards to the needs of the capitalist (Li, 2016). Areas such as Southeast Asia have exhibited great unevenness reporting great development success yet has over seventy million people living below the global poverty line. The production of labour is viewed in terms of capital and profit. Therefore, a strategy is designed to increase profit and enhance productivity by creating casual workers.  While the informal workers are paid extremely little for their work, they produce vast amounts of benefits to their employers.

The hope for peace and abundance as portended by Truman in 1949 remains an illusion as various parts of the globe experience the opposite. Untold poverty, violence, debt crisis and malnutrition are situations describing normalcy in certain countries in the globe. The “Third World” countries and nations have been created by strategies and discourses of development that were aimed to eliminate nations in the category. The discussion surrounding the kind of development that was required to attain and solve the economic and social problems of the low- and middle-income economies contended the need to emphasize economic growth as well as equitable distributions of the economic benefits as a result of the growth (Escobar, 2012). Governments and institutions took the initiative of designing and implementing robust plans that aimed at alleviating underdevelopment and suffering, but alongside a conceptualized development approach popularized by their development agents. The results of all these strategies left the conditions of the majority of people more deteriorated as few people within the economy continue to get more productive and better