Economic improvement

“ But there is a distinction to be made between industrial efficiency and business prosperity. Americans have hitherto identified prosperity with a furious economic activity, and an ever-increasing economic product—regardless of genuine economy of production and any proper distribution of the fruits. ”

“ We will work to increase effective demand, shore up weak links, and give full play to the leading role of domestic demand, particularly consumer demand, in driving economic growth.
Second, we must adjust the structure of the economy to raise it to a higher level of development. In changing the pattern of development, we will continue to focus on economic restructuring and independent innovation. ”

“ The challenge of greater productivity growth is of supreme importance to America's future. Only through productivity gains can real living standards be improved. Greater productivity growth is the cornerstone of price stability and sustained economic growth. ”

“ Just as industry, economy, or skill may improve the condition of the workmen who possess them in superior degree, but cease to have this effect when improvement in those respects becomes general, so a special advantage in procuring supplies, or a special efficiency given to some labour, may secure advantages which would be lost as soon as those improvements became so general as to affect the general relations of distribution. ”

“ We will stick to a new road of industrialization, focus our efforts on adjusting the economic structure, accelerating the transformation of the economic growth mode and increasing the quality and efficiency of economic growth through scientific advancement and innovation. ”

“ And the decisions we make now will determine whether or not we accelerate this progress – whether economic gains flow to a few at the top, or whether a growing economy fuels rising incomes and a thriving middle class. ”

“ These incentives are sweeping fresh winds of progress across America. Along with restraints on government spending and regulating, they're bringing America the strongest surge of economic growth, jobs, business investment, and spendable income since the 1950's. ”

“ We have made much progress in restoring the foundation for a prosperous and productive society. By reducing the rate of growth of government spending, by strengthening the incentives to save and invest, by eliminating many unnecessary and burdensome regulations, and by encouraging monetary policies that ensure the price stability needed for lasting economic growth we have created an environment for sustained increases in productivity. ”

“ Whatever merits it has consist in its possible ability to promote the national economic interest in a progressively improving general standard of living, in a higher standard of individual work, and in a general efficiency of labor. ”

“ The government and the international financial institutions have been engaged in a comprehensive medium-term poverty reduction and economic growth strategy. Further restructuring of domestic industry and success in attracting foreign investment are keys to future growth. ”

“ It’s a plan that will save or create up to four million jobs over the next two years, ignite spending by business and consumers alike, and make the investments necessary for lasting economic growth and prosperity. ”

“ The restoration of infrastructure and the raising of incomes in this ravaged economy depend on the implementation of sound macro- and micro-economic policies, including the encouragement of foreign investment, and generous support from donor countries. ”

“ The fundamental basis for the maintenance of national standards of living is adequate production, economical distribution, and fair apportionment among the various economic groups which constitute our society. ”

“ We should thereby directly and indirectly have secured enormous economic advantages in the productive industry of the persons saved, and in their contributions to the maintenance of those dependent on them. ”

“ If we don’t want growth, we can easily imagine a stagnant economy. That said, most economies aspire at a growth in welfare. We can do this by designing new products or by material investments or by creative ways to reorganise production. ”

“ We will turn pressure into impetus for growth, unwaveringly protect and develop advanced productive forces, shut down backward production facilities, integrate factors of production and create more room for development. We will balance our efforts to sustain economic growth, adjust the structure and improve economic performance to raise the overall quality of the national economy and strengthen the basis for its further development.
Third, we must press ahead with reform to make the economy more vigorous. ”

“ The efficiency of the new manufacturing processes has provided a large surplus of goods that must be taken somewhere, exchanged for food and raw materials, which must, in turn, be brought to the producers of manufactured goods. In the course of these transactions, a generous share of the values produced goes, in the form of profit, to the owners of the industry, another considerable portion goes into reinvestment, thus swelling the volume of productive capital.
The increased wealth, the larger capital and the greater amount of surplus all make possible the maintenance of a larger population. ”

“ So taken as a whole, this proposal will invest in America today by creating jobs, but it will pave the way for sustained economic growth through long-term investments that America and families all across the country so desperately need. ”

“ So the nation whose capital and labor are not well employed may do wisely in developing new industries, even at a considerable expense for introducing the new industries. But if all the nation's energies are profitably employed, the costly development of resources may wisely wait for future capital and labor. So all special incentives require a constant inquiry as to beneficial results supposed to follow, and the policy of the government must conform to the needs of general welfare. ”

“ Nevertheless, there must be economic account of that development, just as of the introduction of cord tires and tungsten lamps and improvements in business organization, which exemplify the real factors that enable a people to attain a higher scale of living. ”

“ Over the past four and a half years, we’ve fought our way back from the worst recession of our lifetimes and begun to lay a foundation for stronger, more durable economic growth. Today, our businesses have created 7.3 million new jobs over the last 41 months. ”

“ Even some of the improvements in labor and welfare conditions have been introduced in this way, with a view to securing a more permanent and more efficient labor supply, and thereby aiding the enterprise from the commercial standpoint. ”

“ Capital offered facilities for the planting of new industries, the development of trade, and the opening up of mines and other natural advantages; so that the means lay at hand for promoting material progress of every kind. Hence new questions of economic policy came to the front. The efforts of traders were no longer confined to retaining exclusive commercial rights; but they began to consider how the various resources within a given area might be developed, so that by the interaction of different interests the greatest material prosperity might be attained in the community as a whole. ”

“ Government aid can only supplement the role of private investment, trade expansion, commodity stabilization, and, above all, internal self-improvement. The processes of growth are gradual--bearing fruit in a decade, not a day. ”

“ The masses of our people came to enjoy the fruits of a determined effort to improve their lot. Our people were reaping the benefits of schools and sanitation, expanded irrigation systems, increased credit facilities, and improved transportation. Our businessmen and industrialists were reacting with understanding to the coordinated efforts to promote the general economic development. The entire nation faced the future with increasing hope and confidence. ”

“ The degree of protection which will be required for domestic industry beyond 1842, depends upon the reduction of wages, the accumulation of capital, the improvement in skill, the protection of machinery, and the cheapening of the price, at home, of essential articles, such as fuel, iron, and so forth. ”

“ Of this increased security, one of the most unfailing effects is a great increase both of production and of accumulation. Industry and frugality can not exist where there is not a preponderant probability that those who labor and spare will be permitted to enjoy.
One of the changes which most infallibly attend the progress of modern society is, (3) an improvement in the business capacities of the general mass of mankind. I do not mean that the practical sagacity of an individual human being is greater than formerly. ”

“ The Conditions of Increasing Future Well-being.—The realization of this resultant of all dynamic forces requires that the rate of growth of population should be subject to a natural check, that the increase of capital should not be unduly retarded, that technical [Pg 320] improvements should go on, and that the organization which is effected should be of the kind which makes for efficiency but not for monopoly. Competition must be kept alive. ”

“ It is our avowed task in the program to translate objec­tives into specific improvements in the overall level of eco­nomic welfare and its distribution. Improvement in this sense means that our production capacity must grow more rapidly than the growth of our population. ”

“ Fourthly, domestic and foreign investments will continue to be encouraged especially in defined areas of priority. Current investment incentives as well as new incentives will be further rationalized or promulgated in order to stimulate and expand economic activity. ”

“ Here are four indispensable requirements—the maintenance of human values, the preservation of group integrity and permanence, productive efficiency and self-generated activity—for the building and successful continuance of economically sound unit groups. If society is to secure maximum returns, if the economic mechanism is to yield its largest quota of goods and services to mankind, the units out of which [Pg 81] society is built must meet these requirements which constitute four of the essential pre-requisites to the success of any economic experiment. ”

“ The recent economic development of some few of these countries, and especially the extension of their agriculture and their mining, have naturally tended to give a practical turn to thought and action, fixing men's minds on business, on the public improvements which wealth makes possible, and on the enjoyments to which it invites. ”

“ Other parties have had no effort in bringing about the innovation, but they consider themselves partners in the industry, they know their leverage, and, thus, exploit it. Their advantage not only concerns the consequences of a better product, but also an improvement of their income position.
Model
In a general equilibrium framework we consider an economy with 400 units of labour and 600 units of capital. The economy produces food and clothing, and a social welfare function (SWF) determines the optimal combination. ”

“ That the growth of population will overpass the increase of production, there is not much reason to apprehend. It is, however, quite possible that there might be a great progress in industrial [pg 477] improvement, and in the signs of what is commonly called national prosperity; a great increase of aggregate wealth, and even, in some respects, a better distribution of it ”

“ If invention and improvement still go on, the efficiency of labor will be further increased, and the amount of labor and capital necessary to produce a given result further diminished. The same causes will lead to the utilization of this new gain in productive power for the production of more wealth; the margin of cultivation will be again extended, and rent will increase, both in proportion and amount, without any increase in wages and interest. ”

“ As I said, we've got experts from a wide range of business sectors, and what we're going to talk about is, are there mechanisms that we can start putting in place where we see the kind of growth that used to characterize the U.S. economy -- export-driven growth, manufacturing growth, growth that pays high wages and provides high living standards for a broad-based middle class. ”

“ The economic strategy we have pursued, reducing the deficit, expanding trade, investing in the education and training of our people in the technologies of the future, this strategy has helped to produce over 5 million new jobs in the last 2 years and, in 1994, more high-wage jobs than in the previous 5 years combined. ”

“ In addition to the improvement manifested in our staple articles of industry, other important interests are showing symptoms of decided improvement; even the iron-trade has got over its 'crisis;' and though we are very far indeed from having attained to a condition of prosperity, the steady, though slow, revival of every branch of industry, is a proof that the cause of the improvement must be a general one, operating universally. ”

“ But a decline in prices caused by greater economy and effectiveness in manufacture and greater skill and economy in distribution, in place of being a calamity, is a blessing and a benefit to all mankind."
With growing knowledge, and the advancement of the arts and sciences, there is a continual improvement in methods of production102 and distribution, enabling the same amount of labour to produce and distribute to consumers a far greater amount of commodities in general than it formerly could. ”

“ It is only by rebuilding our economy and fostering the conditions of growth that willing workers can find a job, companies can find capital, and the entrepreneurial spirit that is the key to our competitiveness can flourish. ”