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Growth is Necessary but by No Means Sufficient
On the one hand, unprecedented economic growth and technical transformation, on the other, the dramatic social condition of so many people whose lifes are being irrevocably wasted; an obvious conclusion flows from this contrasted picture: growth as such does not bring automatically development, or for that, happiness. ... At best, it has some weak positive effects on the condition of the people at the bottom of the social pyramid when growth rates are very high.
But a much more common situation is that of growth through inequality with perverse social effects: the accumulation of wealth in the hand of a minority with a simultaneous production of massive poverty and deterioration of living conditions. In extreme cases, we are in presence of growth with dedevelopment. ...
On the other hand, the fact that development is not subsumed in economic growth should not be interpreted in terms of an opposition between growth and development 7. Economic growth, conveniently redesigned in order to minimize the negative environmental impacts and put to socially desirable goals, is still a necessary condition of development. As a matter of fact, we need higher rates of economic growth to speed up the social rehabilitation, as it is easier to operate on the increments of the GNP, rather than to redistribute assets and incomes in a stagnant economy.
We must therefore learn to distinguish between different kinds of growth. A frequent but unacceptable variety is the savage growth with unbearably high social and environmental costs.
During the golden age of capitalism, as a result of full employment coupled with fordist income policies, Western Europe experienced a socially-benign growth; however, it generated, at the same time, considerable environmental disruption.
Some attempts at greening the present patterns of growth may end up by producing an environmentally-benign, yet socially disruptive variety because of its inability to deal with chronic unemployment and underemployment. ...
We know today that market-led growth will not reestablish by itself a satisfactory situation on the labour market, not speaking of the danger of offsetting some of the most significant advances of the Welfare State under the pretext of seeking greater labour flexibility. It is very difficult, indeed, to translate in policies the formula: yes to market economy, no to market society. That is why it is so urgent to center again the debate on full employment and its equivalents (self-employment particularly important in developing countries, where family-farms and petty businesses have still a major role to play) addressing more specifically to the employment-led growth strategies 8.
Approximate Word count = 2103
Approximate Pages = 8.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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