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[51] Stxian: The wealth of a entire
nation is a very powerful term. But the wealth of an
individual in a nation varys from country to country.
During Marx's time, it was generally believed that
individual's wealth and income is unrelated and perhaps
opposite of the national wealth. Marx was at a time of the
early period of development of Capitalism after the
industrial revolution of the early 19th century. So, at his
time and place, government doesn't intervene much into
people's life, society as a whole and government doesn't
influence much on big corporations. Also, government has
very limitied law and regulation in protecting the working
class as a whole. So, generally speaking, 19th century
capitalist country generally have a opposite relationship
between the wealth of nation and the wealth of individual.
As of today, society have changed a lot as a whole. I have
a different perceptions on the relationship between national
and individual wealth. An individual citizen in a wealthy
nation can be poor or wealthy on the following terms: 1,
This country is experiencing rapid increase of wage; 2, have
a fairly equalized income distribution; 3, education level
of that country is high. The examples of this kind of
countries are: Taiwan, Hongkong and singapore. These three
NICS all have very high foreign reserves as a nation and it
also have a relatively equal and high individual personal
incomes. But, in the case of South Korea, another NIC
country, the income distribution is very unequal. Because
of S.Korea's special economic planning of emphasizing on the
heavy industry and the government policies of cooperating
with the “big corporations”. This resulted in a
centralization of wealth on few big “Landlords” and “Big
Capitalist” and shareholders of such corporate giants.
Other examples of country that are similar to the situation
of S.Korea is Thailand and phillipnes. Those two country
does have considerable wealth right now, but most individuals
are poor except few “Landlords”and Capitalist merchants.
So, in conclusion, Wealth of nation and wealth of individual
can go both ways in our modern society. This is depend on
how the governments' policy and cultural, social and
educational background of that country is and it's economic
openness to the outside market. |
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