The virtues of economic growth are not limited to economic ones such as declining poverty, rising employment, higher wages, improved tax revenues and so on. There is strong evidence that social virtues — longevity, environmental protection, peace and civility — are linked to prosperity as well. Getting the SA economy growing should be the government’s most important single priority. It is not, for two main reasons.
First, the link between economic growth and employment has been completely severed. In the 25 years before 1994 an additional 1% of economic growth was associated with a 1.3% increase in employment. Since 1994 an additional 1% of economic growth was associated with a 0.2% increase in employment. In other words, even if the economy grows it will not reliably create jobs...
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