GRE Issue Task--feedback please !!

[Mingwei Hu]

Hi everyone, i just finished this essay and need some feedback and criticism. Thanks!

 

Prompt:

Claim: Governments must ensure that their major cities receive the financial support they need in order to thrive.

Reason: It is primarily in cities that a nation's cultural traditions are preserved and generated.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim and the reason on which that claim is based.

 

The statement argues that the government should fully support their major cities due to their “cultural traditions”. Surely every major city in a country plays a crucial role in representing the country’s economy and politics. Whether these major cities can successfully thrive to be prosperous always reflects the government’s ability. Therefore, it is necessary for governments to subside their major cities as much as they can. However, the reason on which the claim is based does not always hold true. There is not a direct link between a city’s cultural tradition and the necessity of receiving financial support. On a closer inspection, major cities are not necessarily the places where the country’s culture was generated.

 

 

In making the statement that major cities must receive financial support they need, the prompt assumes that the city’s culture primarily determines the extent to which it can thrive. However, while it is important for major cities to thrive, the government need not provide financial aids based on cultural tradition. In fact, a city’s economic status, rather than its culture, determines how much it needs financial aid. A fast economic growth attracts foreign technology and engineering industries, which requires an increasing amount of government investment. A city’s large-scale industries such as power-plants, electronic factories, and steel industries maintain the city’s economic growth. Without governmental financial aid, these industries would experience hardship in operating themselves, which then would exacerbate the city’s ability to thrive. Furthermore, regardless of how rich the city’s culture is, it needs government’s financial support as long as it experiences economic crisis. The 2008 world-wide financial crisis urged governments around the globe to subside their local business in order to survive the crisis. A city which has just experienced a devastating earthquake or other natural disasters also needs governmental subsidization imperatively in order to recover its economy.

 

 

Secondly, government does not play a main role in financially supporting a city in terms of its culture. Its priorities lie in economy, education, and medical, since these aspects represent the city’s image and how prosperous it is. Even if a city has a goal to keep its culture thriving, the investment is made by private institutions, not government. Many countries around the globe who share a rich culture tradition have distributed the duty of preserving their culture to private business. In China, many local culture resorts are now run by private business. Songzhuang, an old town in Beijing that serves as a culture resort, does not receive government subsidization. It is run by local farmers who open museums and restaurants. Moreover, a government may not fully understand a city’s culture; the government’s view can be different from that of the local populace. At this point, the duty of financially support the culture should be transferred to local business, and government should not intervene the city’s culture development as a way to help it culturally thrive.

 

 

Finally, the speaker may have falsely assumed that major cities to be the birthplace of a nation’s culture. Admittedly, some cities become preeminent over others due to their being the culture-breeding-cities. However, and in fact, most cities become large and major cities in the nation due to their economy rather than culture. Shengzhen, a coastal city in China, does not breed Chinese culture, but it serves as an economic center due to its geographical advantages and the ability to attract foreign business. Another example would reveal that the culture foundation does not guarantee a city’s status in the nation. Kaifeng is a historical city in China which owns a prestigious culture resource, but in fact it is among one of the poorest cities in central China. Therefore, it is unwise for the government to simply assume that major cities are the birthplace of the nation’s culture.

 

 

In conclusion, government should not base on a city’s culture foundation to financially subside it. A city’s true financial need is not necessarily reflected by its culture, and its economy should be the government’s real concern. Even if the government decides to subside a city’s culture, it should figure out whether the city is a real culture-breeding-place, rather than simply assuming it has generated the culture due to the fact that it is the major city.