Human Development and Economic Growth

Reading over the National Human Development Report I kept returning back to the main issue of development that is discussed in the beginning. The mutual reinforcement of economic growth and human development seems to be something that is completely necessary for development and also something that seems to impede any further growth. The opening statements in chapter 2 really tie in well to Sen's main argument for increasing a person's capabilities. Allowing a person to have more freedoms helps to "remove the obstacles that hinder self-fufillment." It can be seen that an increase in human development leads to an increase in economic development which is good, but the only way to increase human development is through economic growth. It is clear that one cannot exist without the other, but there is no clear way of establishing a balance that will help Guatemala increase its development.

As I continued reading the later chapters about freedom to produce, freedom to work, freedom to have this sensitive balance between economic and human development became very apparent. In discussing the health of the country, even though some improvements have been made like a growth in population, increase in life expectancy to the age of 70, and increase in educational attainment, none of these things are of high enough quality to really do any good. So until there is a population that is in a "healthy" enough state for development, it doesn't seem like an amount of capabilities will really do anything. It seems that in order to improve condition in Guatemala progress must begin from the ground up. By starting with the well-being of the people as a whole, capabilities can begin to be increased that will then lead to economic growth. But once again there may be a problem with this because none of these improvements can be made without economic backing.