Economic Development and Social Cohesion At the Heart ofthe Matter

Abstract

Without Economic Development there can be no freedom from the scourge of mass unemployment. There can be no freedom from want. There is no freedom from want unless there is a chance to earn a competency for a life that is worth while. Across Europe there are around 36 million souls who do not have any such chance. They are ‘The Unemployed”. Possibly 12 million ofthem are already called The Long Term Unemployed. More people will join them unless we can manage to generate economic development. Meanwhile, maybe it is reasonable for us to postulate that: 1. A stagnant economy will remain in that State until a dynamic force changes it. 2. The dynamic force provided by technical innovation is directly proportional to the economic growth it induces, the constant ofthe proportionality being the inertia ofthe stagnant economy, and 3. For every instance ofself-induced economic growth there will be a parallel positive multiplying effect on the creation ofplaces of employment. There is little or no economic progress when growth occurs without development. Economic Development only occurs when the underlying rate ofeconomic growth is both self-induced andself-sustaining, so that changes in the structures ofmanufacturing, technological and Services industries yield higher productivity and higherreal income per working person. To induce the desired kind of economic growth, there has to be a steady supply of new initiative, innovation and enterprise that accepts a hopefully properly calculated amount of risk. There have to be many such start-ups on a continued basis. Each European nation will have to make its own decisions and enact measures to cope with its own particular set of problems. Structural and Cohesion Funds may help but they do not bring an economy to life with the wave of a wand. The nations’ economies need to become vibrant as the result ofthe joint human endeavour oftheir young people. Their efforts have to be recognised, encouraged and properly rewarded on an ongoing basis.