There is almost infinite substitutability. Although pollution would probably increase with rapid economic growth in Russia, the reverse is not true. Pollution continued even when our economy shrank due to lack of control of industry and old technology. Top of the Page Economic growth brings both promising and threatening consequences. The driving force generated by the interdependence between economic growth and technological innovation has been the most significant engine of change for the last 200 years.
Economic growth is responsible for changing the standard of living for most people in the world.
It is shaping the physical and social environment, creating new global business relationships, changing the nature of work, employment, and expectations about the role and responsibilities of governments. The consequences of economic growth is subject to pessimistic and optimistic interpretations. There is pessimism over the nature and number of jobs, widening income gaps, trade disputes, energy consumption, political disorder, environmental degradation, migrations from lesser developed countries, technological displacement, conflict between societal and economic aims, and uneven distribution of wealth among nations. And there is equally intense optimism over economic growth's production of employment, food, shelter, clothing, health care, knowledge, tax revenues for government's social programs, as well as the financial resources and new technologies for improved environmental management and global information access. During the same period of economic growth, infant mortality has fallen, life expectancy has risen, and living standards for three to four billion people have improved.