W6.1 April 8 (Mon)/Introduction to Sociology/Economy—CHENG SHIYI

1.Summary

 I've done a rough overview of the content based on the table of contents, below:

 The first part starts with a brief introduction to what the economy is.

 Part II presents Introduction to Sociology/Economy's historical progression of economic development. Economic development has progressed since antiquity, from subsistence agriculture to the advent of money, the establishment of legal systems, the formation of colonial systems, through mercantilism to Adam Smith's concept of free trade, and ultimately into the era of the Industrial Revolution.

Part III presents the history of capitalism and how capitalism works, as well as criticisms of capitalism. The history of capitalism is the evolution of capitalism from its beginnings in the Ancient Roman Empire, the Islamic Golden Age, and the Muslim Agrarian Revolution, to the formation of the market economy and commercial capitalism in the Middle Ages, and the shift from mercantilism to industrial capitalism. The economics of capitalism was developed on the basis of interactions in five programs: 1. Commodities, 2. Money, 3. Labor power, 4. Means of production, and 5. Production.Criticisms of capitalism have also been made in five ways: 1. inequitable Distribution, 2. economic destruction, 3. environmental problems, 4. labor rights, and 5. standard of living.

Part IV is an introduction to socialism. First, socialism refers to various theories of economic organization that advocate public or direct worker ownership and management of the means of production and resource allocation, as well as a society in which all individuals have equal access to resources and are compensated according to the amount of labor performed. Examples of socialism are exemplified from three states and 1 country: 1. Asia, 2. Europe, 3. Latin America, and 4. the United States. This is followed by criticisms of socialism mainly related to its economic inefficiency, incompatibility with civil liberties, and the lack of a price mechanism to transmit economic information, leading to an inability to make rational economic decisions.

The fifth part is an introduction to the economy and there are many ways to measure a country's economic activity, such as: consumer spending, exchange rates, gross domestic product, and so on. Special mention is made of GDP and the Gini coefficient.

Finally, there is the informal economy, which refers to untaxed and unregulated economic activity characterized by difficulties in observing, defining and measuring it, often referred to as the "behind-the-scenes" or "off-the-books" economy, and including specific subsets such as the black market.

2.Interesting Point

Faced with the desperate prospect of being exiled to an uninhabited island to await their deaths, Hansen's disease sufferers managed not only to build a thriving community, but also to develop an economy and achieve collective survival.

3.Discussion

What are the ways in which the concepts of capitalism and socialism are practiced in Asian and European countries? If practiced then how do the results affect social and economic development?