Ramos, Gian Shin M.

AC 101
ECON12B
03/05/2020

1. What do you mean by Third World countries?

Third World countries refer to the less developed countries. It is mostly the countries that
emerge from colonies. It occupies 60 percent of the earth’s face with a population of 70 percent
of the human race.

2. Explain the difference between the rich and poor nations.

The difference between the rich and poor nation can be seen in their per capita. Rich
countries have ten times higher per capita then the poor nations. Problems such as poverty,
unemployment and disease are evident in poor nations than the rich.

3. What are the characteristics of the Third World countries? Explain one of them.
The characteristics of Third World countries are the subsistence of agricultural economy,
having low per capita income, a very high birth rate, high illiteracy, poor health, negative
attitudes, values and institutions, inefficient public administration and high rate of
unemployment. Unemployment refers to a situation where people who are able and willing to
work cannot find jobs.

4. Why do poor families prefer to have more children? Describe our family planning program in
the Philippines.
The reason why poor families prefer to have more children is because they are not doing
anything. They are not working since they are not given any opportunity. They don’t have any
recreation activities as they don’t have the facilities for it. The family planning program in the
Philippines is not evident in the Philippines as high birth rate increases rapidly. The government
doesn’t focuses on the family planning resulting in multiple families not having knowledge in
how to handle their families.

5. People with higher level of education are more productive. Why?

The reason for it is because they have more knowledge in it. Example would be an
educated businessman and a sari-sari store seller. The businessman would know more and would
be more productive than the sari-sari store seller.

6. How can government corruption affect the programs of development? Suggest some ways of
minimizing corruption.
The main effect about government corruption is the low budget. Since they corrupt the
budget intended for the programs of development it would result in having low budget. Another
thing is corruption can take place also when they do projects and they have kickback on the
project. A way to minimize corruption is to check every public officials every now and then on
the things they are doing.
7. Explain disguised unemployment.
Disguised unemployment exists where part of the labor force is either left without work
or is working in a redundant manner where worker productivity is essentially zero. It is
unemployment that does not affect aggregate output. An economy demonstrates disguised
unemployment when productivity is low and too many workers are filling too few jobs.

8. What are the problems of less developed countries?

The basic problem of most societies in less developed countries is poverty. It also has
problems in the allocation of scarce resources. The unjust distribution of these resources as well
as income and wealth are also a problem.

9. Illustrate and explain the vicious circle of poverty.

The vicious circle of poverty means that if it has low investment it will result to low
employment. After low employment is having low production, followed by having low income
and low savings. It is a domino effect where the main focus should be the investment.

10. Illustrate and explain the Malthusian theory. Does it affect our economy?
The Malthusian theory pertains to the rapid increase of population and the slow increase
of production. It means that man have high birth rate while the production side can’t catch up to
it resulting to low or scarcity of resources. It affects our economy as high birth rate can also
increase unemployment, resulting in more poverty.

11. What are the barriers to Development? Explain one of them.

Improving values and institutions, redistributing wealth and income, adopting Western
technology, preparing for industrial development, reducing birth rate and elimination of
economic exploitation are the barriers to Development. Preparing for industrial development
means that most poor countries can’t go to industrial development as their agriculture is not full
developed. Since most industrialized countries are rich, poor nation tend to go for
industrialization. It must developed first its agricultural and commercial sector before it goes to
industrialization. It is hard to prepare for it because there are things that affect it such as climate.

12. Why should we not use Western technology?

The reason for it is because of low capital. Another reason is that Philippines have a lot
of labor power and having Western technology means that these labors won’t be able to work.
Another reason is that it is not suitable to the country’s current condition.

13. How could you breakthrough the vicious circle of poverty?

The rich individuals have to invest their money in productive labor intensive industries.
Those who are not extremely poor have to save more. Scarce resources have to be properly used
and equitably allocated. The nature of taxation should encourage employment and production.
Lastly, foreign investments should be stimulated on a selective basis so as not to compete with
domestic efforts.
14. What are your suggestions to improve the economic conditions in the Philippines?
My suggestions are to focus more on agriculture. Since Philippines has a lot of lands,
they can take advantage of it and focus on planting more crops, fruits and vegetables. Philippines
also has to lessen its corruption since the main problem of the Philippines is that it has high
corruption. Proper family planning should be given to every family so the poor can control its
desire to have more children. Lastly, instead on focusing or allocation its budget to military, use
to solve the problems such as poverty.