FROM ECONOMIC TO SOCIOECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

textabstractThere is no doubt that human life in the more prosperous countries haschanged very rapidly during the last few centuries. The availability of manyforms of comfort has increased at a high rate. To a considerable extent, theforces behind this change are increased scientific and technological knowledgemanifesting itself in the large numbers of new goods, in improvement in theirqualities, and in a continuous change of production processes using increasinglyingenious and increasingly complicated means. A very considerable portion ofthese innovations have been created by individual minds and by individual acts,in which the individual was guided by personal interest and personal gain.Inventors, engineers, managers, and owners of means of production weremoved largely by such personal motives. Scientists’ and technicians’ work wasfor quite some time one-man work, and so was employers’ activity. To be sure,they cooperated in groups of increasing size, but foi. a long time this cooperationwas based on contracts that could be easily discontinued. And even thoughgroupings of individuals of increasing size came to play their role, for theperiod under review the process of our society’s development was describedas a process in which each person pursued his own interest. Attempts wereeven made to prove that such an attitude was conducive to the maximum ofsatisfaction for all and was creating the “best of all conceivable worlds.” Thiswas typically the attitude of economic science, represented by its “father,”Adam Smith, and continued to be the approach adhered to by economists for aconsiderable portion of the 20th century