Social-Economic Issues 
Analysis of Healthier Moms, Fewer Poor People; Capitalism is Working by Tasha Kheiriddin
The general health of the society is inclined in the general health of mothers. Since time immemorial, mothers have been highly susceptible to neonatal complications that resulted into numerous fatalities. This situation greatly interfered with the focal role that mothers are charged regarding the development of the society in all aspects; socially, economically and politically. The society that is born of unhealthy mothers is ultimately incapacitated to wise development, for it will be deprived of the requisite strength to grow towards its goals in the respective aspects. Poor health bereaves mothers of their capability to nurture the upcoming generations physically, mentally, socially, morally and economically. Ultimately, the deficiency of these fundamental aspects will adversely affect the trend that the society takes in terms of development.
It is believed that health is wealth but rather two are reciprocally interdependent. Much as people rely on good health to derive strength of working on their initiated development projects, good health is equally anchored on the wealth that is possessed by the same individuals. According to Kheiriddin, the report by the New Yolk times then revealed a decline in the global pregnancy and neonatal related fatalities, ranging from 526,300 in 1980 down to 342,900 in 2008. This data is based on 181 countries from which samples were extracted randomly.
According to this very study, the decline is attributed to lower fertility rate that continues to be registered. It is confirmed that many women around the globe are beginning to embrace family planning methods in birth control. They have ultimately awaked to the fact that mothers equally need to live a decent life and to achieve that they ought to have a manageable number of children that would not inflate the life’s expenses. Apart from that, increased income per capita has greatly contributed to the decline in the neonatal related death.
Finally, increased literacy levels especially among women have played a crucial role in mitigating this problem. For instance, in the textbook, Robbins points out that more women are now sensitized on possible dangers of pregnancies and are knowledgeable enough in terms of preventive methods to complications that may be as a result of pregnancy. More often than nor, they would visit clinics for antenatal and postnatal check-ups and seek extensive advice on various gynecological issues. Some can even read a lot of literature on the same which enables them to stay informed.
It is worth noting that education has also contributed a lot to improvement of medical skills and this has produced sufficient medical practitioners and birth attendants who are always standby to address the birth related complications as they come. Many women today carry their pregnancies with little or no anxiety because of this factor. For instance, many females today especially from developing countries testify having successfully given birth through caesarean system not just once but even two or three times. This method would be unheard of were it not education that stimulated research and improved on the more crude method through which people would be delivered of their babies, without which those women who talk about the caesarean method could be long dead.
According to Kheiriddin, statistics show that the country with the highest maternal mortality rate remains Afghanistan with about 1,575 pregnant women dying every year due to neonatal and pregnancy related complications among 100,000 deaths generally. As mentioned earlier, this is directly proportional to three factors; high fertility rate, low income per capita and poor standards of education. It is proven that these three factors are a perfect combination that would often cause a myriad of social, economic and even political problems. Summarily, the country will be rated among the poor countries with prevalence of the three factors which are synonymous to poverty.
The solution to these problems, however, lies in individuals making a paradigm shift from a communist mentality to a capitalist mind set. According to Robbin, this scenario is what makes the difference between people who have so much and others so little. People in a capitalist environment will direct their efforts in projects that can generate more income to increase income per capita. With greater prosperity, people will have access to good nutrition and improved medical care. Thus, confirming the assertion of Tasha Kheiriddin of Healthier Moms, Fewer Poor People; Capitalism is Working, poor counties should never imagine that someone would come from outside their territory to bring prosperity to them as some have always believed in aid. They should understand that even countries that are hailed for having tremendous prosperity did not prosper on aid but rather on positive mentality which drove them to using their challenges as stepping stone towards their clearly set objectives and goals.
At this point in time, many people especially from the third world countries are embracing international trade, globalization and rapid technological innovations as conduits towards poverty reduction, and so far the progress is quite impressive. However, there are numerous aspersions that these modernity works only to the advantage of the rich countries as poor countries continue getting impoverished but that should not be the reason as to why efforts of prosperity should not be made. The main aim must be to ensure everybody grows above the poverty line economically to improve the living and health standards not just for all and sundry.
According to Robbins, when people are wealthier their lives become quite manageable and they can therefore comfortably accomplish numerous life concerns including the health. Wealth can be solution to a myriad of global challenges ranging from population growth, famine, environmental degradation, diseases, ethnic and racial conflicts, social and religious rivalries, among others. Robbins attributes world problems solely to variegated capitalism which has categorized the human race into two basic groups; the rich and the poor. While the former strive to expand more avenues of acquiring more wealth for fear of getting poor, the latter are usually busy blaming them for being the reason for their poverty. However, he argues that success is never meant for specific people in the society but anybody regardless the social, economic or political affiliation can become rich depending on how he perceive the principle of capitalism.
The desire for wealth only comes as a result of a belief in commodity consumption as a source of well being. The more people yearn for more consumption of commodities the more they will work hard to acquire those commodities. The culture is said to have been exercised in Western Europe, and then later spread to America and further to the rest of the world. Without that urge, perhaps this world could be as crude as it used to be six centuries ago. It is therefore paramount to note that world’s contemporary systems are a result of industrial and corporate capitalism that emanated from the culture of consumption of commodities. Since human wants are always unsatisfied, this urge for more and more is perpetual as well the urge to improve on the currents state which is equally unquenchable. Eventually, what is witnessed is a masterpiece that makes life not only bearable but also enjoyable.
Population Growth and World Problems
Introduction
Population growth remains one of the most confounding factors that keep fanning world problems. There has hitherto been a big un-proportionality between the world’s resources and the population for which it is designed to take care of. This situation is what would result into innumerable tribulations that are associated with population pressure of about seven billion people on earth. The increase efforts to find lasting resolutions to these challenges have often even resulted into more of the problems. Although there are some good examples of countries that have emerged as role models to the rest of the world in formulating strategies deemed to absolutely resolve the world problems, their quest to enforce this change has often been hit by a huge wave of antagonistic force by those who perceive that change as tyrannical. They would then use a lot of force to counter the change; the force that could suffice in bringing about economic growth and subsequent solutions to the world problems. To understand how sociology unravels the dilemma of economic growth and the means that it considers to understand global problems in the context of culture of capitalism, this essay seeks to demonstrate the extent by which world population growth contributes to the world’s social, economic and political challenges and whether the solution to them lies in the culture of capitalism or not.
How Population Growth Is Responsible To World Problems
The world today continues to grapple with a series of challenges ranging from growing social and economic inequality, environmental degradation, mass starvation and heated social unrest amid a most successful culture of capitalization characterized by globalization, international trade and increase sophisticated technology, among others. One would keep asking as to whether these efforts would suffice in finding the lasting solution to the world’s perplexing issues.
According to Robbins, the culture of capitalism dates back to the past 400 to 600 years when most parts of Europe dedicated themselves to the idea of trade as the perfect way of securing their ends and satisfying their wants. Gradually, the culture spread to other parts of the world and has been under constant improvement till the innovation of globalization. On the contrary, problems seemed to be increasing with the increase in innovations though the underlying goal of the latter would be to reduce the very problems. Robbins points out that the situation has been so due to the way people perceive these world problems. Most cultures in various societies view world problems as distant and as problems for other people to confront. What they forget is that the same problems which they think are not part of them are the ones negating every good thing that they try to come up with. It should therefore be believed that world problems much they seem to some as distant from them, are intrinsic problems to their culture itself.
It beats logic, for instance, when the world boasts of having immense capacity to produce enormous food that is enough for the world’s population of seven billion yet, there are numerous people who are still starving to death. Where is the rationale in this toil? And what is its essence? The spread of the capitalist world system has been followed by instigation of various patterns of social relations, distinct perceptions of the world and food production patterns, distinctive diets, diseases and health patterns and relationship to the environment among others. According to Heilbroner & Milberg, these problems are attributed to the way cultures of different societies are clustered. Each culture has its own distinctive ways of fending for themselves, governing and conducting their social activities. Furthermore, each culture had varied perception of the influence from other cultures. For instance, most societies in the developing countries perceived civilized culture negatively and that is why instead of learning from them, they spend much effort and time resisting them but in vain. Even after having been put under the western authorities, they kept shunning away from the new culture and insisted on their own which is inferior. This kind of attitude made many societies lag behind in development as those which embrace makes steady progress.
The only disadvantage is that many leftist societies which hitherto do not value modernity are the ones with multiple challenges coupled with population upsurge. They kept negating every new idea without contemplating the fruitful impact that it would have had on their lives. Today, they are the ones in great need and surviving on aid from the nations they once resisted. They have also been obliged to borrow a lot of ideas and aping quite a lot from the western countries after having realized that modernity was indeed a good idea only that initially it never meant much sense. However, the rate at which poor countries are moving to cope with the pace at which the entire world is moving leaves a lot to be desired.
Among the major stumbling blocks to balance global conditions economically, socially and even politically is the every growing world population which is not in equilibrium with the economic resources. The rate is even exaggerated in poor countries where despite intensified efforts by governments to sensitize people about family planning, the cultural and religious believes are on the frontline to curtail the process of sensitization. As Heilbroner & Milberg observed, blatant levels of illiteracy only add to the backlog of these problems as many people who are ignorant are the ones who even multiply faster than the learned . Cases of teenage pregnancies, forced marriages and wife inheritance are also among the many causes of this problem. What is later witnessed if an overwhelming population in the society which has done little of nothing to plan for the surplus population in terms of important utilities like education, health care, social amenities and general manageable standards of living?
Another problem which is derived from population growth and which is spiteful to the development of these poor countries is corruption. High population would put untold pressure on the natural resources of nation. Employment opportunities also shrink since much of the goods are imported and even some of the crucial services are provided by expatriates. The big population will therefore be scrambling for meager opportunities of employments and other resources provided by the government and the private entities. This situation would no doubt result into favoritism; tribalism and nepotism, giving and taking of bribes in order to gain favor. Some officials who are in influential positions also embezzle funds to satisfy their own selfish interests. The habit of corruption contributes greatly to the stagnation of the country in development and more often than not it grounds many economic projects especially those that would be enjoying financial support from international donors. It therefore complicates the whole situation of trying to find a lasting solution to the existing problems.
Conclusion
Overpopulation is highly responsible for the poverty, famine and environmental degradation as alluded by Robbins. This fact is confirmed by the study as it considers understanding the global problems. Many efforts are put in place by developing nations to try to solve these global challenges but little or no fruits are ever realized because the rate of their population growth surpasses the rate at which development is done. Unless the former slows down to allow for consolidation of developmental systems, the agenda for poor countries shall always be elusive. That is why there is intense poverty in spite of the high technological advancement that has born globalization which should have made capitalist principles easier to allow people trade free and improve their living standards. It is time that all nations of the world focuse seriously on what has consistently been the impediment towards their development agenda and fix it. In addition, much can be learnt from developed countries that went through thick and thin to attain their current status.