Frontiers For Basic Gains Are Also Progress

What makes the possibilities of frontier so important for the progress of nations? Much more is at stake, than frontier progress which expands opportunities for human wants along the margins of a given equilibrium. While this high income approach to economic progress has been dominant for some time, something is missing. Our non tradable sectors have paid scant attention to millions who would more fully participate in the economy, were they able to do so. What about the wealth potential of newly generated local settings which could encourage low income groups to fulfill basic life goals? After all, this approach would ultimately create more consumers able to encourage the growth frontier of "cutting edge" at the margin, once millions of individuals gain sufficient footing in more basic endeavour.

Chances are, the frontiers which matter most, are those which include starting points for the innovation of need based circumstance. Part of what makes these kinds of frontiers so important, is their potential to allow people of all income levels to more directly manage and create their own life circumstance, thereby contributing to economic growth in the process. Too many such opportunities for self control of local environment, have instead been given over to special interests, redistribution and subsidies, in the belief that experts "should" instead be managing the circumstance which low income groups face.

Indeed, innovative gains which contribute to basic life conditions, are also those which add to economic growth in ways that can actually surpass what occurs along the"cutting edge" of a given equilibrium margin. Alas, the latter more often involves shifts in wealth and resource capacity from one form of consumption to another. Only consider how the relatively recent frontiers of the New World also created new opportunities for citizens to start over in need based terms. Ordinary citizens of those frontier days, often had the good fortune to play starring roles in these earlier stories of new wealth creation. One of the primary challenges of our time is to create new forms of economic frontier, where gains in the innovation of basic needs on the part of everyday citizens, continue to define how we experience our world.

All too often, experts assume that basic economic settings where ordinary people might gain a new lease on life, are a thing of the past in modern day economies. However: Even though immigration is a good solution where possible, it should not be relied on as a sole means of economic escape from conditions that aren't conducive to survival and human thriving. Especially since immigration has only become increasingly difficult for many would be emigrants. Perhaps we could set ourselves an easier task, by creating new forms of economic frontier for beginning anew. In these local settings, many aspects of regulation would be greatly simplified so as to encourage basic innovation on the part of those directly involved.

Let's not assume that need based economic gains are a part of the past, especially in advanced nations where this approach to progress has mostly been abandoned. There are simply too many citizens and communities left behind, to focus all efforts for wealth frontier on further gains for higher income levels. Chances are, need based frontier for wealth creation could be just as useful and practical as ever. Basic human needs in general, could greatly benefit from occasional examination and social adaptation. Modern day economies should not remain limited to a focus on expanding the wants of higher income levels. The economic needs of lower income levels and the potential for supply side innovation in this regard, will always hold relevance in the continued pursuit of progress.