Economic Growth And The Enlightenment. A Moral Consequence.

Is economic growth a good thing? Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of economic growth, considering who gains from it and who might lose out.

For around two hundred years, especially in the West, the world has been in a constant state of economic growth, funded by scientific thinking, understanding of the individual's morality, integration of diversity and the prevalence of democracy. In history we refer to this as the Enlightenment, an era of realisation of an alternative, logical, scientific and fair way of life. It is hard to say whether economic growth is a product of the Enlightenment or whether the Enlightenment was possible because of economic growth, 'It was more than simply an advance in scientific knowledge: it was part of a wider shift in attitudes and beliefs. The Scientific Revolution was the product of dynamic social progress, and at the same time an essential contributor to that process.' . One of the biggest results of this realisation was the Industrialisation of society, which greatly encouraged exponential economic growth. When people think of economic growth they immediately think of a country's GDP (gross domestic profit) and their assumption stops there. Economic growth has many connotations and impacting factors that spin off from the fact that a certain country has the ability to create a vast wealth. On a deeper level, economic growth greatly affects the overall living standards of a country, morality and compassion of the individual, democracy and the capacity for a fair controlled market in which the trade of commodities and materials is free. The birth of the individual, free thinking and entrepreneurship was crucial to the advancement of science and economic growth, instead of taking everything in the world as granted people began to question and embark on a quest for knowledge in the spirit of becoming enlightened, 'The motto of the Enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have courage to use your own understanding!' . The question of whether economic growth is a good or bad thing is very subjective, it has many advantages such as life expectancy increasing, medicine and the eradication of diseases, stronger infrastructures, education, architecture and living conditions. On the other hand there are obvious disadvantages, with the free market and freethinking, opportunities for exploitation and market control are very ripe. Inequalities, domestic and global, are also common products of economic growth, when dealing with the human being, variety and individuality hugely effects rates of economic growth. But without leaving someone behind progress wouldn't be possible, 'We weigh material positives against moral negatives.' . This is where the moral enlightenment plays it's part; democracy and fraternity protect those less fortunate, mostly because of financial reasons.

With industrialisation, the search for optimizing production of commodities and in turn profit, inspired feats of entrepreneurship. An explosion of opportunities occurred, opportunities for inventors to create machines for commodity production and for businessmen to use these machines and methods for maximum profit. These technological advances were and are the catalyst for economic growth, increasing efficiency in every aspect of life is one of the notions that economic growth encapsulates. In a democratic society, market competition is rife and has negative and positive connotations. On a positive note it sparks creativity among rival entrepreneurs. A company needs to compete and if possible, best a rival company in order to maintain a strong presence in the market and intrinsically creating a higher profit. With huge gaps in the market more and more businesses are stepping in to fill the demand of the masses and then, of course, creating many job opportunities for the unemployed. Using technology to create products requires skilled workers who have the capability to efficiently do the job; they are a commodity to an employer and therefore merit a higher wage. This, in turn, pushes forward progress and economic development. This demand for skilled labour in a capitalist society challenges existing class systems, allowing people to utilise their opportunities and create a wealth of their own. Of course new business ventures need capital behind them to get them off of the ground, this is where economic growth comes into it's own. With huge amounts of capital being created daily, financial institutions begin to flourish; this consequently opens up a safe market for credit. With the borrowing of money two things can happen, new business ideas or inventions can now be realised because the creators have the necessary capital secondly the repayments with interest will greatly benefit the banks. Both of these situations contribute to one extremely crucial thing that can either augment or hinder economic growth. Progress. The GEC, (General Electric Company) an American manufacturer of electrical good such as televisions in the 80's and had a famous commercial, which starred the President at the time, Ronald Regan, and he famously remarked. 'Progress is our most important product' .The meaning behind this is understood as 'he was associating the company's contribution to society with more than just the products it manufactured and sold.' . This is a prime example of the realisation that economic growth isn't just new commodities it's the opportunities that they go hand in hand with.

Considering the rapid nature of the science, new ways of production are being created and put into practice everyday. This can massively cap economic growth within certain institutions, they may not be able to afford newer, more efficient machinery and therefore lose their ability to compete in the market. With new technologies being invented at such a fast rate it leaves old inventors in the past, their previously new and efficient technology can quickly become out dated and forgotten. Another brutal reality is the fact that these companies can be completely shifted from within the market, their out dated products and inefficient means of production no longer allows them to compete in a capitalist environment.

Clearly economic growth has some very important benefits for society but there are always going to be negatives. Inequality amongst society is an inevitable backlash when considering the nature of entrepreneurship, determination and new ideas are the foundation but it comes down to fortune in most cases. Without entrepreneurship economic growth wouldn't be possible, and the precarious nature of a capitalist, free market there are of course going to be winners and losers. As mentioned earlier, finding the balance between basic morality and material gain is not always considered. Globalisation of commerce is a good example of this. A company may close a domestic factory and open one overseas in perhaps, India for example. Inevitably the native workers would lose their jobs and would be replaced by a cheaper, Indian workforce. Now, it's hard to say whether this would stunt economic growth, all evidence suggests that it doesn't, globalisation has been occurring ever since man was able to travel over seas. In the last two hundred years globalisation has created vast amounts of wealth for the super powers of the world, for example Mc. Donald's for America. Then again, one must consider the repercussions of this 'solution' for cheaper labour. Closing down a domestic factory will render a number of employees unemployed who will be searching for new work, at probably a lower wage because of desperation. Another inescapable truth is a number of these ex employees will not be able to find work and then top up the number of unemployed in the native country. On the other side of this situation the company now have a much cheaper workforce in India, for example, and can now create their goods at a much cheaper cost and in turn sell for a much greater profit. Anyone can see why this move is made but moral implications still exist. ''On the reasonable assumption that the owners incomes are already higher than the employees', the result is to widen inequality.' . The clear winners in this situation are the owners of the company and the losers are the unemployed in the native country. It is obvious to anyone that the overall profits in this situation have raised, but when considering economic growth we aren't just talking about capital. Living standards and unemployment rates are clearly going to decrease and increase respectively when companies relocate over seas. It is the balance between morals and money that creates winners and losers in this type of financial environment.

Inequalities in society naturally create winners and losers and winners are only created with success in a financial manner. The nature of entrepreneurship is the fact that not everyone is successful, not everyone's ideas are physically or financially viable in reality. Business success requires initiative and creative, forward thinking, attributes that not everyone possesses. This therefore adds restrictions on who can be successful and limits the amount of success actually available in the current economic climate. With this in mind, certain people have the chance to become very wealthy and successful, their larger amounts of capital give them the ammunition to take out loans from financial institutions and in turn affect growth in their businesses. This is obviously a good thing for the successful businessmen, but their success enables them to eventually hold a large amount of the country's capital and have a major influence on the market and perhaps have a degree of control over certain parts of it. This disproportionate hoarding of wealth is intrinsic to the increase of inequality, which inevitably creates losers of the system.

The advantages of economic growth are crucial to the success of the human race's advancements, financially, morally and scientifically. Living standards are at a high, as are life expectancy and the level of education, owing their success to economic growth. These are obviously incredibly important attributes to society if we want to continue living to the best of our ability, but at the same time there are always going to be losers to the system, people that get left behind. Again, 'We weigh material positives against moral negatives.' . The moral implications of how progress and economic growth are set in motion are the disadvantages but there is no way to put a good or bad label on a thing such as economic growth, it is far too subjective.

Bibliography

John Gillott Manjit Kumar (1995). Science and the retreat from reason. London: Merlin.

David Williams (1999). The Enlightenment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Benjamin M. Friedman (2005). The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. New York: Knopf.