“Social values are more important than economic values”
Social Values- are the standards of social behavior derived from social interaction and accepted as constituent facts of social structure. Social values form an important part of the culture of the society. Values account for the stability of social order. They provide the general guidelines for social conduct and help in choosing between alternative courses of action. For example -respect for human dignity, equality, justice etc. are some of the social values even enshrined in our constitution.
For example, the Capitalist system which arose during Industrial revolution caused large scale inequality in the society. Their main focus was creating economic value rather than fulfilling social goals.
For improving the social capital, we need to focus on social values. It will also help in improving quality of life of an individual.
Economic values - They are the worth of a good or service as determined by people’s preferences and the trade offs they choose to make. Making economic choices involve trade off in allocating resources. Economic values like efficiency, economy, profits are helpful in guiding us when we make economic choices. Measures of economic values are based on preferences of the people. Focusing only on economic values and neglecting social values can lead to large scale deprivation and inequality.
For example, Current day Welfare states focus on social values, along with economic values. It tries to minimize inequality.
So for a balanced, inclusive and sustainable development, we need to focus more on the social values than the economic values. In fact, social values provides the foundation over which a strong economy can be built upon
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