Level5-Unit3-Part3-Listening

Living Conditions1

Living conditions around the world vary:变化 from country to country.

Some countries have very large economies but the majority:多数 of their citizens are poor.

Other countries have smaller economies,but the majority of their citizens are not poor.

So the size of a country's economy isn't the only factor that detertmines how wealthy its citizens are.

The size of its poplulation is also an important factor.

Another factor is how a country's wealth is distributed between the rich and the poor.

Let's look at some examples.

This chart shows the world's 5 largest economies in 2015.

It ranks:列出行列 the countries by their Gross Domestic Product or GDP.

The GDP is one way of measuring the size of an economy.

It is the total value of the goods and services produced in a country in a year.

As you can see,according to this chart,the US and China had the largest economies.

(In 2015,Germany had the 5th largest economy.)

According to the chart India had the third largest economy in the world.

It's economy was bigger than Japan's.

However the average of living conditions in Japan are much higher than in India.

One reason for this is the difference in poplulation.

India has a much larger population so its wealth is distributed among:其中包括 a much lager number of people.

You can find this information by checking a country's GDP per capita:人头.

Per capita means per person.

If 2 countries have the same GDP,but one country has half the number of people its GDP per capita is twice as large.

Another important factor is how the wealth of a country is shared.

In some countries much of the wealth is concentrated:集中 in just a few people.

For example,in the US,just 5% of the poplulation holds more than 70% of the wealth.

This shows that many US citizens are not wealthy dispite the size of their economy.

In fact,the wealth share held:保持 by the wealthiest 10% was more than 10 times bigger than the rest of the population.

(One reason is that Japan's population is much smaller than India's.)

Living Conditions2

As we have seen,much of the wealth of the US is concentrated:集中 in just a few people.

10% of its population had an estimated:预计 70% of the wealth in 2015.

In this chart we see some comparisons with other countries.

In contrast:对比 to the US ,10% of Japan's population had less than half of the total wealth.

In China,in 2014,the estimated share of the top 10% was 64%,but this number is rising.

Russia had the highest concentration of wealth,at over 80%.

India which has one of the largest economies,has the largest share of the world's poorest people.

The share of wealth of its richest 10% is 370 times that of its poorest 10%.

A major challenge for a government is to improve the living conditions of its citizens.

As we have seen,growing an economy isn't enough.

Population growth and distribution of wealth are also important factors.

Improving education and developing job skills can help people move up in an economy.

With better education and training,the poor can increase their ability to get better jobs and raise their income.

However,taxes are needed to pay for social services including health and education.

Some countries tax the rich at a higher rate than the poor.

However,if taxes are too high,it can discourage investment and risk:风险 taking.

This is because investors won't take risks unless the rewards:奖励 are high.

So,as you can see,these are complex issues:复杂的问题.