The ideas mentioned in this title are conceived as separate concepts. Most often the categorization of ideas is an arbitrary human instinct that serves to facilitate understanding. Here I believe that is the case as well. Perhaps too the aesthetic differences cause us to separate cultural traits like food, music and language from what we normally associate with economics, usually statistics and other numerical information.
My argument is that economics and culture are inevitably connected and I will write this blog with the intention of demonstrating the close relationship between the two.
These two intertwined concepts can also be said to be the bases of the great world conflicts that we have today. Economically the globe is often said to be divided into North and South; the North with its industrialized countries, vast technological resources and basically stable societies, and the South whose lack of economic development seems to be the root of it surplus of conflict. Culturally the most important divide seems to be mapped out as East versus West. Any attempt to draw a line marking that divide usually proves ridiculous but the most obvious division is generally observed between the Islamic world (East) and the secular West.
Those two imaginary maps overlap a great deal. Basically all that is considered the Islamic West is also part of the impoverished South. In such, it is not hard to draw certain conclusions.
Economic Differences = Cultural Differences
One can argue that certain cultural practices are very much shared across the wealthy North while certain cultural patters are more frequent in the South. One big issue would be women’s rights. Women generally enjoy more freedom in the North in that there are not as strictly confined to traditional roles. In comparison, most developing countries, particularly where poverty is strongest, see women restricted to domestic lives, not participating in academia or in business in significant ways.
Now the question is: Do economic differences lead to cultural differences or vice-versa?
Having said that my basic belief is that culture is part of the economy and economics is contained with culture I believe that the question is unanswerable, or even that both possible answers are equally correct. The way a society behaves (its culture have you) is without a doubt influenced by its economic condition, just as cultural practices certainly effect the economic development of a country.
For those who have economic ambitions, a high cultural IQ with an international scope is a great asset. Likewise, those who are not monetarily driven and may even be somewhat suspicious of the economy of globalization should not ignore the important influence that economics has on people’s cultures.
