In: Economics
Joseph Aloïs Schumpeter (8 February 1883 –
8 January 1950) was an Austrian political economist.
He was born in Moravia, and briefly served as Finance Minister of
German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he became a professor at Harvard
University where he remained until the end of his career.
Schumpeter was one of the most influential economists of the 20th
century,
He popularized the term "creative destruction" in economics and
Schumpeter was probably the first scholar to theorize about
entrepreneurship.
Creative Destruction
According to Schumpeter, "creative destruction" describes the
"process of industrial mutation that incessantly revolutionizes the
economic structure from within, incessantly destroying the old one,
incessantly creating a new one"
1) How can you use the concept of "creative destruction" to explain
a local/global problem that you have observed?
Use of the concept of 'creative destruction' can be used to discuss the development of technology over the century. A case in point is the evolution of mobile phones over the years. Initially, only basic mobile phones were available. That was innovation of a new device to facilitate communication. It led to 'creative destruction of the traditional mode of communication through landline phones, which were not portable and which did not have the SMS facility. As a result, only in a short span of time, the use of basic mobile phones became widespread. Then smartphones came. Due to its many features and user friendly aspects, use of smartphones became highly widespread. This was caused by the 'creative destruction' of the original basic mobile phones. The new smartphones have more advanced features to make life easier. Hence, the process of Schumpeter's creative desruction can be aptly used to describe the evolution of mobile phones over the years,
However, use of mobile phones has led to other problems like eye strain, nerve problems. Hence, this has resulted in becoming a global problem.