Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “Economic Growth without Distributive Justice Will Lead to Violence” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Economic Growth without Distributive Justice Will Lead to Violence

For any country its economy is of great importance and its growth leads the country on the path of progress. It is the rate of economic in growth, which distinguishes the developed countries from developing ones. Economic growth implies that more money is pumped into the society. This money should be so distributed that each sector of the society gets its share accordingly. But unfortunately this seldom happens. The largest quantum of money goes to the rich people or the ones who already possess huge wealth. As a result, those deprived of their share in the excess of money feel neglected and frustrated and resort to violence to achieve what they could not achieve peacefully.

Economic growth, in the true sense, means the proper investment of money the society has in agriculture, industry and tertiary sectors. Economic growth is a slow evolutionary process spread over a somewhat long period of time. There are several factors determining the rate of economic growth. Capital formation is one of the factors determining of rate of economic growth. In developing economies, the rate of capital formation is low. Both investment and saving sides are weak. The other factors determining economic growth are capital output rate, the rate of growth of population, etc. Economic growth is determined by the extent to which the rate of growth of ‘output exceeds the rate of growth of population.

Often there is false projection of the economic condition of the common man. But if it has to be a real national economic growth, then its advantages should be transmitted to weaker and downtrodden. This shall be reflected in the lifestyle of the common man, whose basic needs are taken care of.  Economic growth should be accompanied by qualitative improvement in the general living conditions of the common man.

Unfortunately, this is not possible in developing societies because in such societies social structure does not permit the transmission of economic growth to the society in general. In these societies, economic power rests in the hands of a few individuals. They are well-off people who possess huge wealth. This elite class does not want that the lower and down-trodden sector of the society should get its share in the economic growth. Internally, the elite class conspires that the lower sections of society should stay away from the advantages of economic growth.

In order to distribute the excess of money proportionately and to ensure that each section of the society gets its share, the Government works out several schemes like the Jawahar Rozgar Yojna, Integrated Rural Development Project, etc. Government sanctions fixed sums of money for development work, but unfortunately a small percentage of the sanctioned money reaches the needy. Our late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said that “85 per cent of the allocated money for the poor goes down the drain”. This is all due to corruption prevalent in the whole system. Thus, in India economic growth has not been accompanied by distributive justice.

When the people do not get their share in the economic growth, they get frustrated and become irrational in their thinking. This irrationality is manifested in their actions. They take to violence and other unlawful acts. For example, due to prevalent unemployment, money youngsters have become smugglers and terrorists. Similarly, when people feel that they are being deprived of their due share, they take to violent activities as they know that they have nothing to lose. Marx once said, “You have nothing to lose but your chains.” The same happens with the weaker sections since they have nothing to risk, they adopt violent methods to get something because they cannot lose anything.

Economic growth has always been man’s prime concern. Whether it is the acquisition of wealth, the latest technology or manipulating of others’ labour, it all stems from economic growth. As economy grows, man tries to suppress his fellow beings, rich nations try to exploit the poor nations to their own enrichment. But this lopsided situation has always led to imbalances in society, often leading to violence, as was evident in the case of the French Revolution when a guillotine was set up in each street of Paris for beheading the privileged few. Social inequalities and imbalance also led to Communism. This was accompanied by violence of an unprecedented magnitude. After the collapse of Communism the world over, the question arises whether economic growth along with distributive justice can be achieved.

The so-called Socialist or Communist States, built on distributive justice, have collapsed. Capitalism, as it exists in America today, is also no answer to the problem of distributive justice. The United States in today’s unipolar world has held the entire planet to ransom. It dictates its won terms at the G-7 Summits; it is at economic war with Japan, another industrialized nation, over the trade issue of opening its markets to American goods and services. America also holds sway at the World Trade Organisation.

It is hoped that in the 21st century the elitist class would come forward to share their benefits with others, who are less privileged or down-trodden. This applies equally to a society, a country and the world. Only then shall we be able to stem the violence that economic growth without distributive justice threatens to give rise to.