Growth is not everything, but without growth there is nothing! The importance of economic growth for the welfare of a country can be summarised in this simple formula. There is no doubt that other aspects, such as social, ecological and ideological goals, are just as important for some and may be even more important for others. It is also indisputable that economic success cannot be the only dictate of a society, and not even the highest one. Peace and freedom, security and justice have a higher position on the socioeconomic pyramid of goals. After all, the relationship between “growth” and “poverty” is not necessarily free of confl ict. The weighing of “effi ciency” against “equality” is one of the traditional optimisation problems of economic science. It is certain, however, that the more developed countries and their social systems are dependent on economic growth in order to be able to fulfi l the task of income redistribution. With the demographic ageing of the societies in the European Union and their decreasing population, growth becomes even more important to fi nance the increasing burden of social pension systems.
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