Urban life & rural life

As of today, there are about four point four billion people living in urban areas around the world or around fifty-six percent of the world population. More than ever before, there are more people living in cities. and not only is this the case, but this figure is likely to increase in the future. there are estimate that the amount of people living in urban areas will increase to six billion people by 2050 which will be sixty eight percent of the world population. which means that while the number of people living in urban cities is expected to increase to over two billion people, the number of people living in rural areas is expected to decrease to about two hundred million people. But why are so many people living in cities? and why is this figure only expected to increase in the future?

The obvious way to answer this questions is obviously by observing what it is that people want to live for. first there is the basics needs that people want. Like food, clothes, shelter, water, education, social security and healthcare. Then there is the physiological needs such as intimacy, social bond, family and relationships and then the next one after that is the self fulfillment needs such are self-actualization, reaching a potential or developing a certain skill or talent. And with that in mind we can observe how both the rural areas of the world and the urban areas of the world provide this needs to people. The first thing to analyse is how different the living environment is in both places.

As we all know rural areas have far less people living in it. But this has only been true for a very recent amount of time seventy one years to be exact meaning that only seventy one years ago there were actually more people living in rural areas than in urban cities. Which then begs that question as to why this has shifted dramatically. The first reasoning for this is obviously what we have discussed previously which are the basic needs of people. Since they are the needs that people seek the most. But they need to be able to afford those needs and of course the only means of doing so is with money which then brings us to the main interest of the city. They are for the most part full of means to make money jobs, employments etc.

Which is the main reason for people choosing to move. In order to be able to afford basic humanitarian needs you need to be financially well off and this is what moving to the city provided it is full of job opportunities and even enterprise opportunities. However the main issues with this is that it create a problem. Because the city is full of opportunities, lots of people move there. but as we previously mentioned people need a maximum amount of resources everyday to survive such as food, water, shelter, healthcare, social security and education and providing this takes lots of limited resources to make but since there are more and more people moving to cities the demand for those increase and so the cost increases along side it. and this is what create urbanization.

So to summarize, the city is full of financial benefits in the form of job opportunities, employments and capital to start and enterprise. So people move there. However because it is what everyone seeks, way too many people end up moving to the city for financial gain. And thus the demand for resources increase dramatically meaning they become more scarce and therefore more expensive. Which is what we notice when comparing life in the city and life in the rural area which is the cost of living especially the cost of housing. It is normal for housing to be far more expensive in the city and in a lace like the country side. Because what makes something valuable is its demand the more demand there is for something the more valuable it becomes and thus the more expensive it is. and the opposite is also true when there is less demand for something the the its price drops.

which is why in most part of the developed world cost of housing is far cheaper in rural areas than in urban cities. but for most people this could not be a problem since people have different views. because if you are making lots of money then you will not really see spending over a thousand bucks of housing each month as a problem. But the thing is that not everyone in the city earn enough to be comfortably paying around a thousand pound or dollar on housing each month. Because multiple people from multiple background whether skilled or not whether educated or not will move to the city, it will create a situation where some people will be useful to hire and others wouldn't and therefore some people become well off and other become well poor. And this creates a social divide in the city and a lost of social cohesion.

which brings us to an additional problem with the urban metropolitan cities. Remember the hierarchical structure of human needs. one thing that is more unlikely to be provided in the urban city are the needs above the basic ones. Because there is a lost of social cohesion in cities people living there fill more atomized.

Because as human it is not just the seeking of basic needs that is worth fulfilling but also and more damning the emotional needs. And this is when the physiological comes in. Since humans seek for physiological needs like social bond, relationships etc. their rate of content decreases while living in huge urban metropolitan cities because despite been home to more people, loneliness is far more common in urban cities since there is no sense of community. and thus the individual feel more discontent unable to live and authentic life with all of their needs met. they feel a sense of disconnection with the real world since they are surrounded by nothing but artificial man-made building and object everyday. and since they feel a sense of disconnection they just immediately choose to withdraw all together from society as they feel no sense of connection with it. And decide to retrieve in a form of internet addiction.

So living in cities does not have all the full advantages that people will be looking for. so why is it that it will be the case that so much more people will be living in cities in the future? one reasoning for this is systematic. it has been said that the more urbanized a city become the more productive it also becomes making it beneficial for thing like economic output meaning that a big part of this is mainly due to government decision around the world. Which once again is another thing that could contribute to the city not been a great place to live is that everything that is considered when living in the city is only the financial and material benefit and the complete lack of consideration that humans have other live fulfilling needs which extend beyond the material comfort.

which is why the cost of living been extremely high in cities isn't something that lots of governments and policy makers seems to be bothered by. The main goal is to get the individual to produce and consume e.g. to earn just enough wage from a job only to spend it all on consumer goods. this is the only incentive that is considered by policy makers when they say that the urbanized a city is the more productive it becomes. Because mass consumption is financially and economically beneficial. meaning that the atomized individual in the urban city could only live a life of consumerism and materialism and seek nothing authentic beyond that.

So while the advantages of the of living in an urban metropolitan city is the complete access and satisfaction of material necessities, it does not provided all that is necessary of at least wanted. So could we then discover that the real reason why there are so many people living or are going to be living in urban areas is simply due to the economical benefit that this could bring. but could this be the only thing that could be seen as beneficial? Since factors that are considered beyond the material are also seen as benefit it leads us to another form of living that could be considered by some. the rural life.

The first thing that is worth noting is that life in rural areas is not always directly the opposite of what life in urban areas is life in rural areas can vary. just life not everyone living in an urban area lives alone, not everyone living in a rural area lives in communities. there are some people living alone in rural areas. but what is to be focused on is that life in rural areas can truly bring. what should be done is identify life in the rural area the same way as it has been done with urban cities.

The first thing that is worth noting is that life in rural areas is not always directly the opposite of what life in urban areas is. Life in rural areas can vary. just life not everyone living in an urban area lives alone, not everyone living in a rural area lives in communities. there are some people living alone in rural areas. But what is to be focused on is what life in rural areas can truly bring. what should be done is identify life in the rural area the same way as it has been done with urban cities. And of course the first consideration that could be made when describing how life in the rural area differs to life in urban areas is by focusing on the authentic life that extend beyond just the material needs. like financial gain and materialism. However, it also is something to notice. Because one thing that is interesting is how economical factors effect both places

it is well known that things such as crime, social disorder, pollution, car accident, traffic and things like litter are far common in urban areas. This can be directly attributed to the economical factor. there are obviously more people living and working everyday in urban areas. So of course things life traffic, pollution and to an unfortunate extend car accidents happens very often in urban places. and because the system in urban areas are design to encourage as much mass production and consumption as possible, waste in another concern in urban areas. And the lesser factor to consider is is crime. huge cities are far more plague with crime, felony, infraction, lawlessness and offense. this is due to three factors. The first one been what we have previously mention before. Which is that lots of completely different people move to the city for financial gain. And this create and environment where people with unknown intentions are moving to the urban areas increasing then risk of felony been committed.

And the second factor is that some people are skilled and useful to hire as previously mentioned while others aren't. And this leave the people not so useful to hire with a far harder chance of finding things like employment and thus a far harder chance of providing for themselves leading them to turn to other alternatives which then could unfortunately be unlawful. And the third reason for urban places to be far more plagued with crime and felony is simply the fact that there are too much people making it harder to govern everyone the more people move there the harder it is to create social order especially if those people are from different places and have different intentions but the reason for so many people moving to the city n the first place is because of the very same people governing the place making a big push for urbanization because of the financial and economical benefit that it brings.

So even by focusing on the economical factor we can notice that there are even some benefit when living in rural areas like been a safer, quieter and overall less stressful place to live in and even to an extend a cleaner, greener and more Eco-friendly place to live in as well.

Again there are not directly opposite of urban areas. Like I previously mentioned, what should be done is looking at how each are different and identify what could be the advantages or disadvantages that one could have on the other. Because rural areas also have some forms of disadvantages or at least what could be considered by some as a form of disadvantage. But once again the aim of this is to look at what are the pros and cons of rural life and what are the pros and cons of urban life. But the best advantage that of the rural life is what everyone possible already pictures when they thing of rural life themselves. Which is the community. when thinking of rural areas which is been pictured is mostly local communities working on farming and agriculture. and this is for the most part true. most people living in rural areas live family farms.

As previously mentioned there are something that are considered disadvantageous in rural community which mostly align with how life in the are really is the main disadvantage with living in the rural area of course is the lack of infrastructure and the inability to live a "fast-paced" life like in the city. And for most people this could not really be a disadvantage as they are not interested in living such a life of instant stimulus. urban areas are of course structure to for a life of production and consumption to be easier in order word a life of waking up everyday to drive at a corporate job only to come back home in order to do the same thing the next day. it is normal for people in the urban are to wake up everyday in the same room and follow the same path of living the same life of they lived yesterday in order to live that same life to tomorrow.

and really it just just depend on who the person is. some people are completely happy living this urban life. just like some people are completely happy not living this life and choosing a rural life instead. Whatever is your thought on both. Because everyone will likely have one one thing that should be place above that is whether you have the ability to decide how you want to live.