Not merely is it the case that economic growth is a means rather than an end,
it is also the case that for some important ends it is not a very efficient means
either. In an earlier paper (Sen, I98I b) it was shown that had Sri Lanka been a
typical developing country, trying to achieve its high level of life expectancy
not through direct public action, but primarily through growth (in the same
way as typical developing countries do), then it would have taken Sri Lanka
- depending on assumptions - somewhere between 58 years and I52 years to
get where it already now happens to be.' It might well be the case that 'money
answereth all things', but the answer certainly comes slowly