Rosling

1. He showed that there was bias to think that the western world was more developed than the “third world.” His example was the amount of children a family has and the mean life expectancy. He showed, with Vietnam, in reality that over the years the “third world” countries have caught up with western countries like the US in these measures. This shows remarkable grouth by countries that are considered to be still developing and also illustrates unture biases that the western world has about their development when compared to other countries. It also shows that the western world stil percieves development as if it were stuck in the mid 20th century.
2. Rosling showed that health typically comes first in the development of wealth, showing that health is a precursor to wealth. Education and health are important because they allow people to then go out and get money afterwards. It’s important to be healthy because then you can spend your time working to increase GDP or personal wealth afterwards. As well, education gives a platform to get more specialized jobs which often lead to increased wealth. Education and health are not monetarily expensive endevours but are time and labor intensive. Their benefits in developing other areas make them worth it. Health is the precursor to all other freedoms.

   Amarteya Sen

3. Development is increasing the freedoms of people in an area. He argues that development must be focused on increasing freedoms such as political, economic, health, trasperancy guarentees, and protective security. This is an expansive view of development because it is not focusing on a narrow concept like increasing the economic prowess of a region but rather increasing total freedom. In thought, the author believes that by increasing freedoms and using them as a means, the other more specific goals of development will be acheived. As such, he wants to use increasing freedoms as a means and an end.
4. Unfreedoms include poverty and governmental barriers. The sources of these include an authoritarian government which would limit political rights like press and free speech. Another source of these unfreedoms is an economic policy which does not allow free access to open markets, limiting the amount of choices a person can make when picking an occupation. Free agency is an important tool in development beacuse it allows people to make decisions for themselves in how they participate in society and markets. One example was being so dependent on a job that a man was forced to walk through a violent protest which then cost him his life. The author’s point was that the man was at the helm of economic unfreedom.
5. He was illustrating the importance of markets so he is opposed to people who are generically against markets. Again, free markets give people free agency over their decisions. For this reason, it is similar to freedom of speech as it allows people the freedom of choice, both in expression and desires. He believes that free markets are a natural right and necessity similar to free speech.
6. Condorecet was a french rationalist that predicted the fertility rates would go down with the age of reason. Malthus thought that fertility rates would stay where they are unless something like an inability to feed their children stopped them from doing so. As of now, it appears that condorcet was correct as family numbers continue to decline. However, Malthus has a point since the population growth is incerasing.