ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses whether and to what extent modern economic growth has improved humanity's lot, using the some indicators: available food supplies per capita, life expectancy, infant mortality, economic development, education, political rights and economic freedom, a composite human development index. It discusses the factors that appear to be responsible for the remarkable cycle of progress that has accompanied modern economic growth. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates the minimum daily energy requirement for maintaining health and body weight and engaging in light physical activity to be between 1,720 and 1,960 Calories per person per day. The critical factor underlying declines in HDI is the lethal combination of deteriorating wealth exacerbated by serious public health problems and vice versa. Economic growth, technological change and trade become crucial for the continued improvement in the state of humanity when considers that global population may grow anywhere between 15 and 120 per cent during this century, according to the United Nations' latest projections.
