Global Capitalism & World Systems Theory - Essay Sample

Introduction

The World Systems Theory (WST) asserts that the world has become integrated through a global economy in which there is the integrated division of labor and a variety of political structures (So, 171).Global capitalism has created a system in which nations are always competing to accumulate more capital than their rivals (So, 181). The WST model is illustrated below.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

Diagram 1. The World System model

A core economy in the WST model is occupied by liberal democracies that are economically prosperous. Core economies dominate the global capitalist economic system because their economies accumulate the most capital. The United states is a core economy. According to the WST model, an economy has upward and downward mobility in the global economic system. Thus, America may always decline into a semi-peripheral or peripheral economy or maintain its current status.

Gross National Income (GNI) is the entire amount of money generated by a nation's people and economy (Zainab.et.al.,328-330). It is sometimes referred to as Gross National Product (GNP). Economists GNI to calculate and keep track of the wealth a country on an annual basis. GNI does this by measuring the income generated by its citizens and businesses, regardless of the geographic source of the income. GNI accounts for both the GDP of a country and all the income it gets from overseas sources including economic development aid. GNI is considered an accurate way of estimating the strength of a country's economy compared to GDP because it accounts for both internal and overseas sources of wealth. Hence increases in GNI is synonymous with economic prosperity.

American GNI Statistics

The average United States GNI is $ 9007.92 billion in the time period between 1950 to 2019(Trading Economics, "United States GNI 1950-2019 Data"). The highest recorded levels of GNI was recorded the third quarter of 2019 when it reached $ 19409.89 Billion while the lowest recorded GNI was $ 2199.23 Billion in the first quarter of 1950. This data is illustrated below.

Diagram 2: American GNI/GNP 1950-2019

GNI in America is expected to stand at $ 19759.00 billion at the end of 2020(Trading Economics, "United States GNI 1950-2019 Data"). Long-term, American GNI is expected to reach $ 20194.00 billion by 2021 and $ 20598.00 billion by 2022.

Diagram 3: American GNI Forecasts

Summary

GNI in the US has increased to $ 19409.89 Billion during the third quarter of 2019 from $ 19324.33 Billion. Data in American GNI shows that the United States is a core economy in the global capitalist system.

Works Cited

"United States GDP1960-2019 Data." Trade Economic ,26 March .2020,www.tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp

Zainab, Tazeem, Zahid Ashraf Wani, and Masood Ahmad Bhat. "Scientific Research in Relation To Gross Domestic Product (GDP) A Comparative Study of China and India." 2018 5th International Symposium on Emerging Trends and Technologies in Libraries and Information Services (ETTLIS). IEEE, 2018.

So, Alvin Y. Social change and development: Modernization, dependency and world-system theories. No. 178. Sage, 1990.