The Problem of Industrial Growth in a Mature Economy

The general program of which this paper constitutes a part is concerned with the changing character of the American economy, with particular reference at this session to the subject of investment outlets. Preoccupation of economists with opportunities for investment is socially intelligible only in relation to the bearing of investment on industrial trends, i.e., on the question of the progressive evolution of the economic system on which we rely for the production and distribution of the goods and services required in the maintenance and upbuilding of our standard of life. It is clear, then, that the essential question before us relates to the workability of the American economic system under present-day conditions. This question of the workability of our economic system - which for want of a better term we may call a business enterprise system - is a broad one, but we venture to say that the survival of this system depends on satisfactory answers to two main questions: