Time Essay: Can the World Survive Economic Growth?
A better, even if less precise measure of economic growth might be “an increase in material well-being.” In poor countries, the redefinition is not so important: their people still need every cooking pot, pair of shoes and bicycle that can be produced. But in the industrialized world, and especially in the U.S., it is possible to envision a policy that would devote a dwindling share of new investments to traditional industry while channeling more into such tasks as cleaning streets, improving education and law enforcement, upgrading mass transit and expanding low-cost medical service. Such a program in the developed nations might cause G.N.P. growth to slow, though not stop, since stethoscopes use less metal than refrigerators do. For that very reason, this program would conserve resources and minimize pollution, and it could result in a truer as well as a cleaner kind of economic growth. Litter-free streets, safer trains, better medical care and increased protection against muggings m
