Philippine E-Journals

A Comparative Analysis of the Economic Performances of the Current as well as the Emerging Dragons of East Asia

Roberto B. Raymundo

Discipline: Economics

 

Abstract:

The end goal of any long term national development plan has always been geared towards improving the people's general standard of living. Development is both a physical reality and a state of mind in which society has, through some combination of social, economic and institutional processes, secured the means for obtaining a better life (Todaro 1989). Whatever the specific components of this better life may be, development in all societies must have at least the following three objectives:

 

1. To increase the availability and widen the distribution of basic life-sustaining goods such as food, clothing, shelter, health and protection.
2. To raise levels of living including, in addition to higher incomes, the provision of more jobs, better education and greater attention to cultural and humanistic values, all of which will serve not only to enhance material well being but also to generate greater individual and national self- esteem; and
3. To expand the range of economic and social choices available to individuals and nations by freeing them from servitude and dependence not only in relation to other people and nation states but also to the forces of ignorance and human misery. (Todaro 1989.)