“Economic growth, which we have taken for granted for the past two centuries, can’t be taken for granted anymore,” assistant visiting professor of economics Juan-Pedro Garces-Voisenat said. He began his talk on growth, development and happiness March 25 hosted by the Society of Economics Students, an organization founded last fall.
Garces-Voisenat centered his talk around a re-evaluation of the importance of economic growth as compared to development. Garces-Voisenat explained that the two terms, growth and development, normally linked, are actually quite different. According to Garces-Voisenat, economic growth deals with accumulating more goods and services — more DVDs, more factories and more money. For Garces-Voisenat development is something more abstract and subjective. “Development is about living a life of possibilities. It is not about riches anymore or having great infrastructure or beautiful buildings,” Garces-Voisenat said. “Development is about being and doing rather than having.”
Photo courtesy of ITNnews
Garces-Voisenat began his talk by delving into economic history. He explained that for the first millennia A.D. economic growth was flat, and it was only at the end of the Middle Ages that growth began to take place in Europe, culminating in the two centuries of rapid growth from the 1800s to the present day. Garces-Voisenat tried to illustrate that economic growth is not a natural phenomenon and that we may be reaching a point where there is no more that we can get from accumulating more.
Waxing philosophical, Garces-Voisenat asked the small audience, “If means don’t lead you to a life that is richer, what is the use of those means?”
The United States and many other countries, he theorized, have reached a point where we have to change priorities and accept lower growth and focus instead on greater development. “We are going to have to get used to the idea of growing at 0.5 percent. The important thing is not the things we have, but what we do,” Garces-Voisenat said. “You can have development without growth. We can be happier and live fuller lives without having more material means.”
Garces-Voisenat cited many examples of countries that do not have high rates of economic growth, but which have a high level of happiness, including Sweden and even Cuba, much to the surprise of some audience members. Following the ideas of Indian economist Amartya Sen, Garces-Voisenat outlined a new model of development which focuses on the freedom and ability for people to pursue other activities besides buying and selling goods and services. Some of what was mentioned included non-traditional activities such as the freedom to sing, to act, to play and to speak publicly.
Senior Patrick Kayser felt that the talk brought up a great deal of interesting and surprising issues. “I found the talk was interesting because we covered that growth and development are not the same thing, and that country’s happiness has a lot to do with development,” Kayser said.
Junior Stephen Schmitt, president of the Society of Economics Students, agreed. “I really liked it because I think happiness and growth are really important because they can really shape how a country changes. I feel like as people’s views about what is important change, we may have to change our models and Dr. Garces-Voisenat touched on that,” Schmitt said.