Influences On Society

8 Pages 2115 Words

Influences on Society

Michael Novak stated that there were three influences on any
society: Political influences, Economic influences, and MoralCultural
influences. The political influences consist of the governmental body
of that society and the laws and regulations set by this governing
group. The moralcultural influences consist of the "voluntary
associations" of a society: the churches, media, education systems,
the people in this society. The final influence being the economic
influence, which is the rate of employment, GDP, incidence of poverty,
and structure of economic activity. Novak made this theory into an
object, a "triangle" of sorts, with each influence being a point on
this "triangle." Novak goes on later in his theory to deal with other
influences, but as other dimensions. What Novak appears to have missed
in his theory is another very important influence on society that
influences, and is influenced by the other points of this "triangle,"
technology. The Middle Ages did come up with a few inventions, such as
windmills and horseshoes, but technological process was imperceptible
compared with what is happening now. Very soon, a fiber the diameter
of a human hair will be able to transmit, in less than a second, the
contents of every issue of The Economist magazine that was ever
printed (Economy Survey 4). Since Adam Smith, economists have
recognized that technology is important for growth, but only in the
past two decades have they been studying this subject in earnest (7).
There pioneer was Joseph Schumpeter, one of the few economists who
tried to explain growth mainly in terms of technological innovation.
In the 1930's, he presented a model that postulated growth through the
interaction of bursts of technological development and competition
between companies (8). His evidence pointed to history. First, the
1780s to the 1840s, which brought the steam power ...