Ms. May
G1 Literature- PEEL Paragraph Samples
2023/04/06
1. Do you agree that technology has disrupted our lives?
The demise of many industries can be attributed to the rise of
technology and this has disrupted the lives of the less skilled. With
many new technologies on the horizon, industries that rely on
manual labor are facing increasingly more pressure, and more and
more workers are laid off. For example, with a new and improved
method of production in car manufacturing, thanks to automation,
thousands of factory workers previously employed in the industry
have lost their jobs. This is increasingly relevant in today’s world as
occupation mobility is hindered by the specialization of skills and the
impact is magnified by the growing income inequality across
occupations. Therefore, technology has certainly disrupted the lives
of people whose livelihood has been threatened by technology.
2. To what extent is progress driven by greed?
Greed can drive progress in the economy because when every
individual seeks to maximize his or her self-interest, it will result in
the efficient allocation of resources in society. In the world today
where the former communist-bloc countries are increasingly turning
capitalistic by introducing market features to utilize human greed in
allocating resources instead of through central planning, we have
seen tremendous economic progress. For example, when Deng
Xiaoping introduced market reform in China, farmers were allowed to
sell surplus produce for profit. With the new-found economic
incentive, farmers were motivated to produce more crops to reap
more profits so as to satisfy their ever-growing wants. This reform
had solved the chronic food shortage and paved the way for China’s
future rise as an economic powerhouse. Thus, in trying to satiate
one’s greed, he has to maximize the value he can contribute to
society in order to gain returns in the form of monetary benefits. This
in turn maximizes the welfare of society and leads to economic
progress.