Does economic growth hurt the environment?
There is a lot of discussion about the relationship between economic growth and the environment. Some people argue that the increased production of goods and services leads to the degradation of the natural environment, both because production uses scarce natural resources and becauses it generates pollutants as a by-product. These people argue that economic growth should not be a goal of public policy. Others argue that richer countries can afford cleaner environments. They can invest more in resources to clean up the environment and in new technologies which pollute less and use natural resources more efficiently. These people argue that economic growth is good for the environment. Who is right? As in most difficult issues, both sides are right and both sides are wrong. If you look at measures like the amount of municipal waste per capita or carbon dioxide emissions per capita, environmental problems generally increase with economic activity. And if you look at measures like the perc
