The Price of Progress - Essay Example

The Price of Progress Economic growth, development and progress are associated with many undesirable characteristics and outcomes. Rising GDP and societal progress are always in conflict with other goals like reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sustainability of goals. Many individuals end up suffering due to the effects of progression. What comes out clearly is the fact that economic development and progression have both desirable and undesirable effects on individual members of the society.

The positive aspects of progress are overrated and governments are setting development goals year in year out. From this point of view, the benefits of progress are measured in terms of higher standards of living, better health, greater security and increased incomes. As a result of all these measurable factors, many have ignored their traditional cultures in pursuit of these “goodies.” Some individuals in the society willingly pursue this material targets while others are forced into the system by government policies.

This means that the disadvantages of progress will affect both sets of individuals in the society. One question spurred by the reading is whether progress always impacts positively on the quality of life. This question is hard to answer because assessing economic development and progress is difficult. This leads to an assumption that the benefits of progress outweigh the detriments. Therefore, the most widely used indicator of positive progress is the standard of living which in my view is misleading.

This means that an array of factors is considered when evaluating progress, and they include literacy, health programs and employment rates. In my view, money is not the sole measure of progress but the well being of individuals in the society should be also considered. Disregarding tradition implies that the ability of culture to satisfy psychological and physical needs of the population is compromised. This directly lowers the quality of life from the cultural perspective. From the article I can conclude that progress significantly lowers the standard of living due to degradation of mental and physical health, increased incidences of delinquency and crime, family instability, demographic structures and the strained relationship between the society and natural resources.

It is also true that before progress took centre stage, all these undesirables were non-existent or minimal. Therefore, progress has done more harm than good to the quality of human life. The fact that many diseases arise because of economic development shows how progress is expensive. Many diseases come up in developed regions of the world or as a result of development based activities. Some diseases such as obesity and diabetes mainly affect individuals in the advanced world are associated with progress.

This has been true for the better part of the XX century but has spread to the developing world due to the irresistible progress. Territories that were lagging in development never or rarely experienced these diseases but once they started embracing development, incidences of these diseases were on the increase. Progress creates a clash between the environment and the society implying that the environment is destructed which easily leads to a variety of diseases which in my view was not the case in the tradition setting.

This is true as congestion that is brought about by development causes rapid spread of diseases and disease causing pathogens. In trying to address these issues, health programs always attempt to come up with drugs which result into drug resistant strains of the pathogens. This is immensely enhanced the by the developing transport networks. From this point of view, progress does not in any way address the well being of individuals in the society. Concluding from the above factors it is quite clear that the quality of life in terms of service production and individual satisfaction is compromised as a result of progress.

Progress also leads competition for resources among individuals in the society leading to social classes where we have upper and lower social classes. This results in discrimination and deprivation of essential services to some members of the society. Therefore, in my view, progress is costly to pay and should be embraced with caution. Works cited Bodley, John. “The Price of Progress.” VICTIMS OF PROGRESS, 1998. pp. 137-151. Print.