The Goal of Economic Growth [antikvár]

Introduction The economic growth of this country was, until very recently, a matter of little popular interest. There was continual concern over the growth of market demand in relation to the growth of productive capacity: inflation was feared if demand grew too rapidly, unemployment was feared if demand grew too slowly. But the growth of productive capacity itself was not a source of worry. The nation's capacity to produce grew steadily decade after decade. The adequacy of the rate of growth, which had made this nation the most prosperous in the world, was not questioned. The lack of popular concern over growth was reflected in government policy. We had no public policy toward the rate of growth. Many government activities, especially investments in the public sector, made a vital contribution to growth. Yet no branch of government ever took measures explicitly to alter the growth of the private economy where the great bulk of the goods and services are produced. Our public policies sought mainly to make the private economy efficient, equitable, and stable. Clearly an economy can achieve all these goals and yet not grow; pursuit of these goals did not necessarily stimulate growth. If the legislation, expenditures, taxes, and monetary operations by which government pursued these goals sometimes affected the rate of growth, this effect was typically a by-product. Government policies expressly designed to alter the growth of the private economy were not contemplated. Now attitudes and public policy give signs of changing. After a brief postwar spurt ending about 1952, capacity has grown at an average annual rate of 3.7 percent. This is a respectable rate by our historical standards: it exceeds slightly our growth rate between 1900 and 1929, and it is far better than the dismal years of the Great Depression and World War II. But many people are no longer content with our average peacetime growth rate. They are calling growth a public responsibility. Government measures