Romania could be a very good example of how there is a need for improvement in terms of all aspects of Jeffrey Sachs’ normative perspective on the fundamentals of a good society. Primarily, what struck me the most about the short part of the video, was the importance of the people containing their trust in the government, and I truly believe this is an aspect that Romania seriously works against. Ever since the end of communism, which already created distrust between the people and the government, there was and still is a lot of corruption within the government, corruption which does not go unnoticed. (2/10)
In terms of social inclusion, Romania also faces numerous difficulties. Social inclusion dictates that all members of that given society are well integrated, in spite of their nationality, creed, or religion. In Romania, the Roma people, which occupy a good 12% of the National population, still face segregation and racism. If we were to scale the good life, and each aspect ranked from 1 to 10, we could rank social inclusion in Romania quite badly, at a 5, due to the many racial problems, and general problems within societal ‘togetherness’. It gained a 5, however, as we do have a certain level tolerance within the countries, where other can live quite peacefully together.
Furthermore, in terms of environmental stewardship, Romania does not have tremendous issues with its management of its environment, at first sight. However, it contains large problems with water and air pollution, ‘Air pollution and water pollution caused by industry are serious environmental problems in Romania. The country’s factories, chemical plants, and electric power plants depend heavily on burning fossil fuels, a process that emits high levels of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide – a key component of acid rain. The industrial centers of Copa Mic, in central Romania, and Giurgiu, in the south, have severe air pollution problems. Bucharest, the capital, also has serious air pollution. Much of the nation’s industrial runoff ends up in the Danube river system, making water unsafe for drinking and threatening the diverse ecosystems of the Danube delta.’ If we were to scale the good life, and each aspect ranked from 1 to 10, we could rank environmental stewardship in Romania, relative to other countries, at a 2.
The spread of wealth in Romania is quite detrimental. The Gini coefficient is a measure of the variation in incomes within a country. Romania scored a 27.4, out of 100. This dictates how serious and damaging the economic imbalance is to this country. Thus, it is fair to score Romania’s spread of wealth as a 2/10.
To conclude, adding up all the rankings, Romania scored a, 11/40. Although this means our country is in a bad state, there is room for improvement. The ‘good life’, cannot be expressed or exemplified with Romania, however, this country can be used as an example on how to ‘better’ social wellbeing everywhere.