A couple of days ago TCS Daily ran a great little article about the difference between growth and economic development. The difference being that one is the natural byproduct of the other. Here’s a teaser:
“Economic development is a term so overused, so vague, and so misunderstood that its employment in public discourse has become the convenient wildcard for government to impose its various, indeterminable designs. Have a hankering for a new waterfront? Issue bonds and call it economic development. Looking to lower unemployment? Wield public funds to subsidize otherwise wary corporations into setting up shop for a little while.”
“Unfortunately, all too often, folks with policy-making responsibility are either foreign or indifferent to the differences between development and growth: whereas development represents the byproduct of economic strength - effective infrastructure, bolstering human capital, and strong employment - growth is the traditionally prescribed, and proven, mechanism for putting dollars in our pockets, allowing the markets to naturally stimulate development.”
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