The general welfare of a nation's people is a better indication of that nation's greatness than are the achievements of its rulers, artists, or scientists.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the claim. In d

In contemporary society we get used to believe that the overall welfare of nation's citizens is a better marker of that nation's grandeur than are the accomplishments of its governors, artists and scholars. Although this claim has many proponents, I cannot concur with it because of reasons which will be discussed in details below.

To begin with, it is a widespread belief that the general welfare of people is the surest indicator of the greatness of a nation; perhaps, this stance is so popular because many of us live in democratic societies which elect their officials and we get used to evaluate our greatness via our life-standards. For instance, Americans are a great nation because it has one of the highest GDP in the world. Moreover the prosperity of its people is an unachievable benchmark for many other countries to which they strive. From this viewpoint, the overall welfare of a nation's citizens is a decent way to measure nation's greatness. However, may we state that it is the best way?

Probably, the answer on this question is "no". In my viewpoint, achievements of nation's rulers, artists and scientists are a better indicator of the greatness in particular because those accomplishments impact on the flow of the history of the mankind. For instance, today Greece faces grave hardships but, at the same time, the nation has given us, perhaps, the most influential philosophers of all times such as Aristotle and Plato, in fact their works have changed our understanding of the world, for instance, they gave us logic, math, physics and astronomy, psychology and even idea of democracy; in fact, without Greece the world would have been different, perhaps, we have never reached the heights of today. Moreover, the USA is considered as a great nation not because of its level of consumption or life but because it imposes its ideals such as the liberties and the freedoms as well as inventions such as the internet on the world. In the future our progeny will estimate the grandeur of the USA through its achievements in science, politics and arts.

Furthermore, achievements are a better indicator of the nation's greatness because they create possibility for sustaining and creating overall welfare. In other words, the welfare of a nation does not appear from nowhere instead it is created by politicians, rulers, scientists and artists. Those achievement influence the general welfare directly for instance by creating new items or ideas and implicitly by generating money which may be used to support the welfare. To illustrate the idea, we may imagine that the USA would have not had any scientific or artistic achievements: no movie is produced, no book are written, no scientific breakthrough is accomplished. Where the government would take money to create and support the high standards of American life?

In conclusion, although many of us assume that the general welfare is better indicator of the grandeur than for instance, accomplishments of nation's rulers, artists and scientists, it seems that, in fact, achievements are more fundamental because their create a foundation for overall welfare. Furthermore, they remind traces in our history and thus make the nation great forever.