growth

The answer, we are cnstantly being told, is 'growth'. It will resolve our economic problems. It will set us  on a new course to fiscal renewal. It will create jobs and put money back into the pockets of High Street spenders. So let's hear it for growth. But what, actually, is it? I am a sec mod abacus man.A succession of well-intentioned teachers failed to interest me in arithmetic, and when my school report said I had achieved seven percent in the subject I thought my father would be pleased. 'Seven out of ten is OK, dad,' I suggested. 'No, no, son,' he corrected me. 'Seven percent is seven out of a hundred.' It makes me one of the great majority who are confused about high finance, or even low finance, and I am glad to leave it to the likes of Mr Peston and Mrs Flanders, who nightly tell us about the sorry state of the financial world. In financial terms, even I can understand that if we are going to pay for the things we need we must somehow acquire money. And if we want more things, then we need to get hold of more money. Even abacus man can understand that. But what if abacus man has a philosophy grounded in the very simple idea put about by Saint Paul, who said he had 'learned in whatsoever state I am therein to be content'? It sounds, now, 'so first century', so lacking in ambition. 'Content'!!!... so retro. It flies in the face of everything we now need to take seriously if we are to rescue the world. But what if it is the basis on which we might,  au contraire, save the world?