[i习作temp] issue119 【challenge yourself小组】第13次作业 by monica365 [复制链接]

monica365
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发表于 2008-8-12 22:42:37 |只看该作者 |倒序浏览

TOPIC:ISSUE119 - "When research priorities are being set for science, education,or any other area, the most important question to consider is: How manypeople's lives will be improved if the results are successful?"
WORDS:521 TIME: 00:45:00 DATE: 2008-8-12 8:45:37

Many of us believe, the benefits of generalpublic is one of most crucial standard for us to make decision of establishresearch priorities in different areas. However, the definition of"improvement of people's lives" is obscure as showed in the speaker'sclaim, that's why I can hardly agree with this statement in all circumstances.

First of all, no one will doubt theimportance of public benefits in evaluating successfulness of certain researchprogram. Consider, environmental programs that are set by governmental researchcenters aim to protect the natural resources, eliminate pollutions thatindustries induced to and other exacerbate environmental problems - so as toenhance the quality of our lives. And Majority citizens have been benefitingfrom the environmental programs with improvement in their qualities of lives.On the other hand, the environmental regulations or programs imposed onindustrial corporations would, more or less, affect its ability of gainingprofits with the extra expenditures in environmental implements; thereforeconduct to possible low salaries of workers or even unemployment.

From the above example, we can learn thatwhile many people's lives will be improved through programs of researchpriorities, there are still a lot of people will suffer from negative impact ofthem. According to the speaker, if the portion of people who will benefit fromthe research priorities are outweigh the ones will potentially suffer fromthem, the establishment of the research priorities is feasible. However, thebenefits and costs of certain research priority brings are hard to beevaluated, especially in different time periods.

If the improvement means better individualfinancial condition, improved quality of education and work, and highsecurities of people's lives in short-term period, majority of research prioritiesworld widely exists are accomplishing the goals. For example, one of the most influentialnon-profit governmental research intermediaries of U.S w- SBA (Small BusinessAssociation), have been continuously providing financial and technologicalsupports for small business corporation in U.S, and contributing to Americaneconomic booming. SBA is definitely a successful example because its financialcontributions to individual corporations and the whole country are obvious inshort-term period.

However, when we turn to long-term period,the conclusion might be slightly different, since in my circumstances it'salways difficult to weight long-term benefits against its potential costs andharm. Also consider the example of SBA, it only prefer to provide services tosmall corporation which satisfied their requirement. During insufficientlong-time, the supports SBA provided to certain portion of small businesscorporation will to some extent adversely affect the equity in the wholemarket. Moreover, it's possible that the regulations SBA imposed on certaincorporation will no longer suitable for its long time development, and finallyhampers the development of macro-economy. In this case, the short-term benefitsto public will turn out to be adverse consequences.

To sum up, because the portion of people whose lives will be improved from certainresearch priority might be varied in different time-periods, the establishmentof research priority, no matter in which field, should take into account ofsparking a balance between its short-term influences and long-terms ones - toboth individuals and nations.

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