Most countries want to improve the standard of living through economic development,however, others think social value is lost as a result. Do you think the advantages of economic development outweigh the disadvantages?

Many believe that in the race to improve living standards, people are forgetting social values.

However

, in my perspective,

this

tendency obviously offers more demerits than merits. On the one hand, governments often try to

increase

the

growth

rate

because it will have various

advantages

.

Firstly

, ​​​​​​economic

growth

means an

increase

in real GDP-

this

leads to output and higher average incomes. higher GDP implies the economy is producing more goods and services and

therefore

consumers can enjoy more goods and services. If human welfare is linked to consumption

then

growth

will benefit society. Higher levels of consumption will help to reduce any incidence of absolute poverty when people can’t meet the basic necessities of life.

This

may not be so obvious for developed countries, like the UK and US, but for developing economies, economic

growth

and rising incomes play a big role in lifting people out of poverty.

Secondly

, higher economic

growth

will

also

lead to an

increase

in demand for labour as firms will be producing more.

Therefore

unemployment will fall,

this

has various

advantages

such

as lower government spending on benefits and fewer social problems. If the economy is in recession,

then

increasing the

rate

of economic

growth

will be an important step in reducing unemployment.

On the other hand

, I am of the opinion that the aforementioned

advantages

are at the expense of greater drawbacks.

Firstly

, if economic

growth

is unsustainable and is higher than the long-run trend

rate

inflation is likely to occur.

Furthermore

,

this

temporary boom in output is unlikely to continue and may be followed by an economic downturn or recession.

Thus

, it can be very damaging to

increase

the

rate

of economic

growth

above the sustainable

rate

.

This

boom and bust cycle happened in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Secondly

, economic

growth

often leads to increased inequality because

growth

benefits the richer most because they own assets and have the best-paid jobs.

For example

, Thomas Piketty observed that, without sufficient policies of redistribution, the wealthy tend to

increase

their wealth at a faster

rate

than economic

growth

– because they can reinvest their dividends. In conclusion, it seems to me that the disadvantages of improving the economy are more considerable than its

advantages

.