Over at Forbes, Edd Noell and Stephen Smith write that if we want a better world, we should work on boosting economic growth:
If we as a society want to live in a better world, we must start taking economic growth seriously. It’s easy for economists to understand why growth is so important—but too often, economists fail to explain why it matters. With increased economic growth, the lives of millions of people around the world—in countries both rich and poor—can be transformed.
Both authors of this column have witnessed growth’s power in person. One grew up in 1960s Hong Kong. While today Hong Kong is a wealthy financial capital, in the early 1960s it was engulfed in poverty. His earliest memories include images of the flood of over one million refugees into his city from Mao’s China. But by the time he reached high school much had changed. Children born in shanty towns now lived in apartments with electricity and running water. Each morning, crossing Victoria Harbor with its glittering view of Hong Kong’s burgeoning skyline, he could see the trade, construction, and growth that provided jobs, increased wealth, and lifted families out of poverty. Since then, in our frequent professional travel to Asia, we have both seen first-hand the fantastic poverty reduction triggered by growth in Korea, China, and much of Southeast Asia. Read more…Edd and Stephen, along with Bruce Webb, authored the new book, “Economic Growth: Unleashing the Potential of Human Flourishing.”
