Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentEndnotes1The economic importance of improvements in the quality of humanresources is highlighted by the increasing importance of so-called“knowledge industries” and “knowledge workers” in advanced industrialeconomies like the U.S. and Japan (Machlup, 1987). Productionprocesses, like goods and services, are becoming more “knowledgeintensive”, thus increasing the demand for a more skilled, educated,and creative workforce. The rates of growth of knowledge industriesand knowledge occupations in the U.S. and Japan have substantiallyexceeded the growth rate of GNP and of the labor force, respectively.(Machlup, 1987)2According to an influential World Bank study (1980, p. 36) ofhuman resources and economic development, the natural resources ofa country are not consistently correlated with either its level of naturaloutput or its rate of economic growth. Also, where natural resourceshave contributed significantly to growth, the discovery, utilization, andmanagement of those resources has ultimately been based upon theapplication of human intelligence and creativity.3The negative relationship between the unemployment rate and therate of economic growth is given by “Okun’s law”. More precisely, theempirical regularity known as Okun’s law states that the unemploymentrate will decline by 0.4 percentage points for every 1 percentage point ofannual real GNP growth above its trend rate of growth (Dornbusch andFischer, 1988, pp. 573–574). Likewise, many economists believe that theinflation rate and the unemployment rate are negatively related in theshort run. The hypothesized negative short-run relation between inflationand unemployment is described by the so-called “Phillips curve”(Dornbusch and Fischer, 1988, p. 573). The widely accepted Phillipscurve theory implies that, other things being equal, attempts to reduceunemployment through stimulating economic growth tend to generateincreased inflation in the short run; thus the net effect of the miseryindex will depend on whether the increase in inflation is greater than thereduction in unemployment. During the current U.S. economic expansion,however, the longest peacetime expansion in U.S. history has beenassociated with substantial declines in both inflation and unemployment.4The term “stagflation” refers to the simultaneous occurrence of economicstagnation (economic recession) and inflation.434