In the last week, we discussed the different issues faced in China and America, which are categorized according to political, economical and societal. Despite the characterization, they are not all distinctly different; most of them are in grey regions, not completely black or completely white.
America faces many problems in society, which range from teenage crime to drug abuse. Teenagers cause a huge problem to America by having gangs and committing violence. This would result in social unrest. Furthermore, teenagers are known to be the future of the country. Without the right moral mindset and a proper definition of what is wrong and what is right, how would they be able to step up to solve potential problems in the future? I believe this is caused by various reasons. Firstly, America emphasizes on the importance of freedom of rights. This perception encourages youths to become more adventurous and “testing”, taking advantage of the freedom of rights and committing the crimes. The availability of weapons could also be a reason, as seen from many college shootings in the past decades. This could be solved by restricting the usage of weapons in America, not allowing youths access to these dangerous items.
Also, there is a problem of low saving rates in America. This leads to families being unable to support themselves in times of emergency. A study conducted showed that only about 48.6% of the American population is prepared for a period of unemployment while only 36% of them are prepared for a medical emergency. This problem is worsened with the weak job market in America. With these rates, a large portion of the population would be looking to the government for solutions. This would evolve it to become an economical as well as political problem on top of being a social problem. I believe that this savings problem can be solved by introducing the concept of saving, a common ideology in China as well as other parts of Asia to American citizens, especially children, who would ultimately be the successors of Singapore. An example of such an initiative would be Playmoolah, a company founded by co-founders Audrey Tan and Lee Min Xuan. The company aims to educate children in America on saving and properly investing their money, while parents are also allowed to track their children’s progress within the platform.
Another problem in America would be the inefficiency of the political system. Decisions take extremely long to pass through due to the equally balanced two party ruling system, where both parties have equal say and have contradicting and contrasting opinions, many times just to spite each other. This slows down the efficiency of having policies passed through, leading to major problems in society. As seen when President Obama took office, his desire to withdraw troops completely from Afghanistan have not been very efficient due to conflicts between the two parties, resulting in more tension being built up within and outside of America. On the other hand, China has policies passed out easily due to the one party ruling system, where there is no opposition with enough power or enough authority to speak against the decisions. This helps the system to run at a faster pace, allowing decisions to be made more easily. To overhaul the American political hierarchy to become a one-party system would be ridiculous, as it would go against many of their believes such as restricting their freedom of speech and possibly cause even more conflicts to occur. However, I believe that America could take valuable pointers from a one-party system and adapt accordingly. They could allow the ruling party to have more authority than the opposition, enough to be the ultimate decision-making power while still having an opposition to raise valuable arguments to make sure that they do not simply go with their ideals.
Of course, China is not perfect too. A great problem in their society would be an issue on corruption. Being a one-party ruling political hierarchy, the party in power has the authority to go along with their ideals on what they believe in beneficial. With so much power, corruption is aided. There is no second party strong enough to pose threat to their power, and this rampant corruption could affect the society greatly as it affects the citizens’ views toward the government, which would result in the inefficiency of the workforce, leading to economical problems as well. In this aspect, China could definitely learn to open up more to take in more opinions as well as allow a second party to pose a threat or force to make sure the party in power checks themselves and be more cautious with their actions.
In conclusion, I believe there is no perfect solutions to problems, but only a restriction to the issues. It would not be possible to eradicate issues completely, but both of these superpowers of different sides of the globes can definitely take lessons and adapt accordingly in order to progress socially, politically as well as economically.
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I think that the issue of low saving rates is a very big problem in America as well. The impact of such a problem stretches all the way to the society and the country's economy. Americans must learn to save more.
ReplyDeleteHowever, in regards to your suggestion to allow the ruling party to have more authority than the opposition, it might be an issue. I understand that it is important for US to both ensure the equality of all and the government to make its move efficiently. I do not think that giving another party higher power will be beneficial for the population - many might argue that it is against their 'rights'. In simple terms, it is like 'bullying'. It is a plausible solution, but at the same time very risky.
Quek Yong Jie 3S2(20)
Overall, I am glad that you have managed to extract the various societal problems in each country as well as to proposed some solutions for them. However, I feel that you could be a little more specific about the solution you proposed to overcome the problem of teenage crime in America. You mentioned that America can restrict the use of dangerous weapons so that teenagers will not be able to get hold of such items to cause danger. However, this is merely a generic idea of what America should do to prevent teenage crime. Hence, I feel that you can be more detailed in specifying who or what should America learn from in order to overcome such problem.
ReplyDeleteI support the idea of integrating Chinese's one party ruling system into the America's political system as it is important the America continues to preserve its culture of providing liberty and freedom for the population, and at the same time, making use of the government's authority to have higher control and say over the decisions implemented in the country.
Lastly, I felt that you may discuss more about problems in China and probably provide evidence of corruptions from other sectors in China other than in the government or political officials. However, I also felt that the main cause of corruption in China is not totally caused by the one-party ruling system but instead by other factors which include the importance of 'guanxi' (relationship) in China's society.
Dear Aik Yang,
ReplyDeleteI feel that based on statistics, fighting and not shooting is a more common form of teenage violence. Therefore, even if guns are banned and the teenagers are not allowed to possess dangerous arms, it may not solve the problem of teenage violence in America. I think we have to look at the root cause of the problem to find the right solution and in this case, I feel that the access to weapons is not the main reason.
Also, I do agree that China’s one party rule may be one of the reasons for the corruption cases in China. However, I feel that having two or more parties may not be the best solution. In China, the reason why they are able to prosper so fast is because they have the ability to push out policies fast. And they can do it because they do not face any resistance in its one party government. Therefore, I think that it is not very wise to change this system that is serving them well just because of a few rotten apples in its cabinet. I just feel that we should not take such drastic actions which could put China’s economy at risk. Therefore, I feel that the next best solution is to offer competitive ministerial pay so that the government officials are not enticed by bribes so easily.
Thank you.
Regards,
Alastair