ABSTRACT
Modern societies have evolved economic institutions and procedures which respond to signals of cost and demand by introducing resource-saving or cost-reducing innovations and substitutions. The prospect, therefore, is that economic welfare, as measured by indexes of output per unit of input, will continue to increase. But what of the other aspects of welfare? If, along with the achievement of increasing returns, the distribution of income becomes inequitable; or market processes become more imperfect in their allocation of benefits and costs; or the quality of the available product mix changes unfavorably; or there is a net reduction in the intangible satisfactions derived from the appearance of the environment; or in any other way the social framework becomes less desirable—if any or all of these types of changes should occur there might be a consensus that total welfare had not increased along with economic welfare, that the quality of life had, in some significant respect, been impaired.
