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“The Traditional And Most Widely Referenced Definition

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“The traditional and most widely referenced definition of economic development has long been that of wealth creation. ” This definition is not necessarily satisfying and immediately begs the question, “Well then, what is wealth creation?” A sophomoric explanation for wealth creation is simply the use of either labor or capital to make, produce or provide something of value as determined by another individual’s free choice. Thus, a more complex definition of economic development would, and should, be considered how a subset of people improves their own wellbeing as determined by that same group of people through the use of their labor and capital to create value in the eyes of a market participant making choices of their own accord. Each …show more content…

All other things being equal, an improvement in economic growth enables economic development if the growth is not ‘wasted’ as, again, determined by the economy participants…including any group of monetarily wealthy individuals that might attempt to retain wealth creation at the expense of other participants.
Regional planners have come up with means to measure both economic growth and economic development. As one might guess, economic development growth, being a concrete measure, is far easier to judge, measure and compare. Whereas economic development is a bit more in the eye of the beholder because the planner is trying to measure economic growth as well as improvements in society as determined by the participants themselves and judgements of people can change over either short or long periods of time.
The most common way to measure economic growth is using Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Specifically, real GDP is defined as the total value of everything produced in an economy the after removing the effect of inflation. GDP calculations include everything produced in the economy including services. Often real GDP is used to compare one period to the next to determine growth of periods of time. Economists have found various ways to delve into GDP including looking at the measure on a

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