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.
Admittedly, a nation‘s cultural traditions should be preserved and it is in some of its major cities that the nation's traditions are generated. For example, one could have a deep understanding of traditional Chinese culture by visiting Beijing and seeing the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven. However, this doesn't mean that governments should give major cities the financial support they need in order to thrive.
First, major cities have their own approach to get financial support. Since many famous companies have built their headquarters in the big cities, these cities could collect large tax revenues from big companies. For example, the headquarter of Chinese E-commerce company Alibaba is in Hangzhou and the headquarter of Chinese search engine company Baidu is in Beijing. Thus, each year, these big companies pay millions of dollars of tax to the city government. Also, the big cities could always attract big foreign investments. For example, the Shanghai Disneyland, which the famous Walt Disney Company have invested several billion dollars to build, opened in 2016 and this would undoubtedly help to boost the growth of Shanghai's economy. Finally, the tourism industry in major cities would always be very prosperous. Every year, millions of tourists come to Beijing to see the Forbidden City or to Shanghai to see the Oriental Pearl Tower, which would generate millions of tourism revenues. Therefore, there is no need for the government to ensure that the major cities receive the financial support they need because these major cities themselves have various ways to get financial support, such as tax revenues, foreign investments, and tourism industry.
Second, due to the globalization, many major cities all over the world are becoming increasingly similar to one another. They all share the same characteristics, such as skyscrapers and wide streets. People living in major cities become more alike as well because they also share similar lifestyles. Thus, one might not experience the nation's cultural traditions in major cities due to the similarity among them.
On the contrary, it is in some small villages and rural areas that the nation's cultural traditions might be preserved. As a result, government should give these regions the full financial support to preserve their cultural traditions. For example, minorities living in the remote Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou provinces of China have unique traditions and customs that one cannot experience in major cities. A minority called Dai in Yunnan province has a traditional water-sprinkling festival that people pour water onto each other to celebrate the lunar new year. Furthermore, such small villages and rural areas are much less developed than major cities because usually they could not attract big investments and don't have large tax revenues. Thus, the government should give more financial support to the small villages and rural areas to help them thrive, so that the cultural traditions in these areas could be preserved.
To sum up, there is no need for the government to ensure that the major cities receive the financial support they need because these major cities themselves have various ways to get financial support, such as tax revenues, foreign investments, and tourism industry. By contrast, the government should give more financial support to the small villages and rural areas to help them thrive, so that the cultural traditions in these areas could be preserved.