The Most Serious Social Problem In My Mind Essay, Research Paper

The Most Serious Social Problem in My Mind

In Spite of the great achievements that China has achieved in the recent years, our country is still a developing country, which is facing many serious social problems. The most serious of all is overpopulation, for it has a passive influence on the national economy, education and environment.

First and foremost, overpopulation is the main obstacle of the economic development in China. The limited natural resources in China can hardly support the excessively large population. Developing of our national economy, especially industry, needs great amount of natural resources, such as land, water, oil, coal, gas and iron. However, the natural resources are limited and decline very quickly when a large population exploits them everyday. Take fresh water as an example, in 1990, 58% of Chinese cities (http://www.cass.net.cn/y_sjr/y_cn_sjr_334.htm) were suffered from the insufficiency of water. It not only birngs great disadvantages to people’s daily life, but also has a passive influence on the economic development. Released by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the economic lost caused by the insufficiency of water is 250 billion RMB per year, including 230 billion lost of industrial value of output and 20 billion agricultural lost. As a result, the insufficiency of natural resources somewhat slows down the economic development in china.

Second, overpopulation leads to the result of a rather low SOL( Standard of Living) in China. SOL means GDP per person, and it is an important index of the real national economic status. Although China makes great economic achievements and improvements every year, the economic achievements is not that glorious when divided by the large denominator of population. By the end of 1999, released by the State Familiy Planning Commission of China, China??s total population is 1,259,090,000. Though the GDP in China grew about 7% (SFPCC statics) in 1999, it was only enough to provide the newborn babies (19,090,000 -SFPCC statics) with food and clothes, while could rarely be used for the further development of the national economy. As a result, overpopulation has a passive influence on improving people’s standard of living.

Besides the passive influence on economy, overpopulation is also regarded as the major obstacle for improving the educational condition in China, which weakens China’s competitive power in the world. With the increasing population, our society needs more teachers and facilities. However, since ours is a developing country, the fund for education is not enough in China. In many places, especially in the countryside, there are not enough teaching facilities. Consequently, the youngsters in those places cannot get good education. Even in large cities of China where educational system are relatively complete, the teaching facilities are still not pleasant enough, which can be seen from the violent competition in all kinds of entrance examinations. Education is the basis of the development of science and technology, and the competition between nations in today’s world lies somewhat in the competition of science and technology. The poor educational situation that overpopulation brings about hampers the China??s science and technology from developing too some degree and weakens China’s competitive power in the world.

Last but not the least, overpopulaiton has a negative influence on the environment. The case in China now is the densely-populate cities, excessively-cut forests and seriously-polluted rivers. Overpopulation is an important reason for the environmental pollution. Some people say that the sky now is not as blue as that before. In my mind, overpopulation should be part of its reason. The environment now in China can hardly support the excessively large population , and the negative influence of overpopulation on the environment is quite obvious.

Some people may argue that overpopulation is not the most serious social problem compared with some other issues, such as pollution and corruption. Actually, this opinion is not correct. National economy is the basis of improving people’s SOL and is also the basis of current international competition, education is the basis of the future international competition, and the environment is the basis of the existence of all creatures, while now they all relate closely to the overpopulation issue in china. What kinds of other issues can be more important than all those above? Also, this issue should be discussed based on each country??s background. China has a large population base. Take 1999 as an example, though the natural growth rate is 8.77??( SFPCC) in China, it brings a population increase of 19,090,000(SFPCC statics), which equals a medium-sized country in Europe. As a result, overpopulation may not be that serious in some other countries, it does be the most serous social problem in China.

In order to solve the overpopulation issue, the government should pay great attention to it. Some policies, such as ?? One China policy??, have already been made in China. They have already paid off. For instance, in 1994, the natural growth rate was 11.21??, but in 1999 it was only 8.77?? (SFPCC statics). However, China still has a long way to go in this aspect, for the overpopulation is still serious now, just like what have been mentioned in the previous paragraphs.

In a word, overpopulation is the most serious social problem in China now, and great efforts are needed to make in order to solve it.

Resources are from the websites of the State Family Planning Commission of China& Chinese Academy of Social Sciences