How development leads to modern states of mass consumption

The concept of stages helps us understand why the disparity between first and third-world countries even exists

Development, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is simply the process of developing or being developed, but the word "developing" encompasses a lot more. Development, however, cannot be defined so simply. The word itself holds more meaning than can be imagined.

To understand the concept of development, we need to refer to its various stages, which are as follows: traditional society (third-world country), pre-conditions to development (underdeveloped), takeoff (developing) and the Age of Mass Consumption (developed). This concept of stages helps us understand why the disparity between first and third-world countries even exists and why we can't (at the moment) do much to stop it.

Traditional society (stage one) of the development cycle shows a third-world country. Countries based on this model rely mainly on agriculture and raising livestock using traditional methods, leading to less production and more effort. The people of this sector have little to no access to technology, and even if they have access to it, they are untrained.

Before we move on to pre-conditions to development, let this be a reiteration of the word pre-conditions. Pre-conditions are basically conditions that need to be done before changes in development are shown or seen. It's very simply defined as doing and leading by example, a horse and carrot scheme.

As a first, Bangladesh very recently established its Seventh Five-Year Plan (SFYP) as a future development programme but previously had also developed an internationally acclaimed population control plan that did not entail the use of religious leaders, technology or other rudimentary tactics. Rather, they use the basic horse and carrot scheme where the Directorate of Family Planning decided to give rewards to those accurately using the programmes implemented across the country. However, this is only when countries prioritise certain plans of action and deem them as correct and necessary instead of following a certain standard layout for lower-staged countries to follow.

Moving on to the 'takeoff' stage, which is essentially a short-term development stage, where massive income is produced on the national economy, which gets a large increase in its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and expands its Gross National Product (GNP) via more investments if the foreign policy was expanded in the previous stage. This is the stage most "semi-developed" countries like China are on. This stage signifies exponential growth, which in turn favours the people and economy of the country.

Finally, we have the last stage, the Age of Mass Consumption, which signifies a developed country and has nothing but examples. The Age of Mass Consumption is the idolised "western lifestyle" that is shown in every single movie or television show that you might watch. As the name states, it shows the truth behind the cycle itself, for it is not all sunshine and roses, with consumption being the main part of this stage. Signs of the lack of mental state development are still shown occasionally; the anti-vaccine movement in the United States and the United Kingdom are prime examples that almost everyone knows about.

To sum it all up, development is not a word; it is a process that has many stages and types, including the development of a singular mindset. The word "development" entails a lot more than the general definition given by the Oxford Dictionary; it involves mental development, as well as visible infrastructure development.