Economic Growth and Its Discontents

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the concept of economic growth and the growing sense of discontentment with it. Economic growth has been the prime goal of economic policy for a long time, and it has also been the prime criterion for judging the success of the economic performance of a country. An increase in national product per head is supposed to mean an increase in economic welfare; it does not necessarily mean an increase in people's total welfare. Economists have relied, however, on a practical judgment, namely, that a change in economic welfare implies a change in total welfare in the same direction, if not in the same degree. It has been noted that in developed countries in the west, there's a growing disenchantment with the current notion of economic development. Substantial reasons for this sense of disappointment and disenchantment are the impact of growth on the environment and the ability of developed countries to sustain growing populations in the face of declining sources of primary products and of mounting wastes. In the West, poverty is observed to be as widespread as are the social problems associated with it, crime, drug addiction, and the rest, at least as intense as they are. Also, there is a growing decline in happiness even amongst the populace who are enjoying the luxuries available in the developed countries of the west.