Abstract
ECONOMIC progress is the orderly assimilation of innovation into the general standard of life. It usually connotes a widespread sharing of new benefits, but is by no means inconsistent with some degree of uneven distribution of wealth or income, for in a non-socialistic community some disparity generally raises the standard of life of the mass to a point higher than it would be under a forced equality of distribution of wealth, the envies caused by disparity notwithstanding. The purely material standard in Great Britain was raised fourfold during the nineteenth century, and probably rather more in the United States. If we take into account also length of life and proportion of leisure, the increase is much greater. The improvement arises only to a very small extent in changes in the average innate capacity of man, not co-operant with, or parasitic upon, his environment. It is almost all due to innovation in social activity (including social education and the reactions of economic betterment upon physical and mental ability). The greater part of the innovation is scientific innovation in physics, engineering and public health but a not inconsiderable part falls outside these categories, and belongs to the non-physical section better ideas about money, more social confidence in banking and credit, improved political and social security and legal frameworks for the better production and diffusion of wealth. The elaboration of these factors depends partly on intellectual prevision and invention, but mainly upon average moral standards, and calibre of character, since many political schemes, including international co-operation, are impracticable only because of failings in the present standards of human nature.
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STAMP, J. Must Science Ruin Economic Progress?. Nature 132, 429–432 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132429a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132429a0
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