Article October 29, 1979 Issue

The growth that counts

HUBERTA F. RANDALL

Economic growth is everybody's concern. The general feeling seems to be that if only one's country has more of everything—oil, weapons, factories, food—all will be well. But this materialistic concept of growth can lead to greed and grabbiness—sometimes even to war. Fear of an energy shortage illustrates this fact.

Today voices are being heard that doubt the value and/or practicability of the growth ideology. After the Sixth European Planning Conference at Geneva last year, the United Nations office prepared a statement entitled "Planning of the European Social Development Programme, 1978-1981." Under the subtitle "Social Development Trends in Europe" we read: "Confidence in the regular and automatic expansions of national wealth and production has been shattered .... Significantly lower rates of material growth than originally envisaged have come to be accepted in most European countries. ..."

One interesting case is the attitude toward growth on the part of the city of Rotterdam, which in a few decades rose from the ashes left by a devastating air attack to become the biggest port in the world. A recent issue of the magazine Rotterdam includes this statement: "Growth at any price has been scrapped from the economic shopping-list." ^{"Interviews en Opinies," Rotterdam, 1978, No. 2, p. 4;} The Christian Science Monitor has urged that "in addition to the GNP [gross national product], some thought should be given to an MNP—moral national product."^{The Christian Science Monitor, September 8, 1978;} People need to recognize that "a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,"^{Luke 12:15;} as Jesus said. The genuinely important things—integrity, intelligence, brotherly love—are not material assets but spiritual values, which have their source in God. No fear of limitation here, for as Hymn 224 in the Christian Science Hymnal expresses it: