Economic growth reflects the increase in the ability of human beings to meet their own needs. Although the two things are not the same, the economy is a very good indicator of the ability of human beings to meet their own needs.
A large part of our own needs is the need for adapters that are genetically programmed to reproduce. For example, we are now able to enjoy good medical services, so that our infant survival rate has greatly improved; we are richer in human resources, so that our adolescent growth has been more secure; We have the Internet, can make information more rapid and convenient dissemination, so that we can share a lot of survival experience; we have a film and television, let us reduce a lot of pressure on life, we don’t have to work day and night like the ancients to survive; we have cities and communities and big houses to make our lives safe. All of this is the result of economic growth, our ability to survive on this volatile planet has greatly improved, in almost every place there are traces of human activity. (of course, since humans have self-awareness and free will, many needs have become less genetically programmed.)
From the history of human economic development, we can see the improvement of the ability to meet their own needs.
But in fact, this answer is not in-depth analysis, so in-depth analysis I will talk about next.
1. The fundamental driver of economic growth, first and foremost, must be sunshine.
From the point of view of statistical mechanics, the whole earth is a negative entropy system, which must constantly obtain energy and material from the outside world to maintain the state of order.
With the sun can have energy, our coal, oil is the former solar energy to save down. We have the energy to make the tools to extract the resources, and then let us produce all kinds of products, to meet human needs, such as making weapons, building ramparts, making wagons, writing brushes, paper, clothes, umbrellas, utensils. And a lot of products came into the market and were exchanged.
With sunlight, we can develop agricultural cultivation and breeding, so that we human beings can have a material guarantee on the survival level.
If there is no sunshine, then there is no economy, if there is no continuous input of sunshine, there is no economic growth. You can imagine what it would be like without the sun.
2. But we humans don’t create anything out of thin air. Animals, like humans, enjoy the sun and can’t create anything out of thin air. But animals don’t have economies, and they don’t have economic growth, so what is the second fundamental driver of human economic growth? The answer is us.
The essence of our human economic growth is actually an increase in the efficiency of our energy resources in meeting our needs. There are two things going on here.
1) our increased use of energy to meet our needs. First of all, compared to animals, animals on a variety of coal and oil resources can not be used, only to eat plants and animals to meet their needs, silicon or silicon, has not become a CPU, so animals have no economy, no economic growth. And then compare it to before and after the Industrial Revolution, which invented the steam engine and electricity. The invention of the steam engine made energy available to US instead of human power, and the invention of electricity further brought energy into more of our human activities (because electricity is easier to use than oil and coal) . In addition to increasing the conversion rate of available energy, we can also develop new and more energy for us to use, such as nuclear power and so on.
2) we humans use energy to make society more efficient, use energy resources more rationally, the same energy that is converted to meet human needs is maximized to meet the maximum demand that can be met, simply put, silicon can be used as a mirror and can be used as a CPU, all of which are converted to meet human needs, but being a CPU obviously allows our needs to be met more. Here’s the mechanism: We invented the car, we invented the car, we invented the car, we invented the car, we invented the car, we invented the car, we invented the car, we invented the car, we invented the car. More rational allocation of resources, so that we can more efficient access to energy resources again. For example, the era of computer artificial intelligence internet global economic integration, so that our economy has never been more dynamic and rapid growth is the reason.
We are human because our brains have evolved into a universal Turing machine, a universal Bayesian inference that can represent the world, understand how it works, and be able to make tools. We have the language to communicate, and we can work together, and by working together, we have emerged social organizations from individuals, like the National Tribal Corporation, that have greatly enhanced our efficiency with regard to energy to meet our human needs.
Cooperation, specialization, company organization, marketization, and other elements that promote economic development are all used to increase the efficiency of energy to meet our needs under the input of the Sun. This is the essence of economic development.
Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations”first began to systematically discuss these behind the operating mechanism, became the beginning of modern economics. (capitalism, of course, does not operate on the insights of Adam Smith, but Smith’s insights allow us to better understand our human society.)
But Adam Smith’s theories have been around for centuries, many theories have been replaced and refined (of course, macroeconomics still has a long way to go, meaning that there is consensus on some basic issues, and more and more complex issues have emerged that are still much debated) .
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