Are developed nations too complacent about their wealth?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper used an address at the World Economic Forum on Thursday to discuss the complacency in wealth of developed nations. (Christian Hartmann/Reuters)Prime Minister Stephen Harper called out wealthy countries on Thursday, suggesting they take their wealth for granted and are complacent.

Canada's economy outperformed the economies of most developed nations in recent years and is recognized by the World Economic Forum as having the soundest economy in the world, he said at a forum address in Davos, Switzerland.

"Our number-one priority as a government is prosperity -- that is, economic growth and job creation," he explained.

"That may sound obvious, almost clichéd," he added. "But is it really?

"As I look around the world - as I look particularly at the developed world - I ask whether the creation of economic growth, and therefore jobs, really is the number-one policy priority for everyone?

"Is it the case that in the developed world too many of us have in fact become complacent about our prosperity? Taking our wealth as a given, assuming it is somehow the natural order of things, leaving us instead to focus primarily on our services and entitlements?"

Harper said the wealth of Western economies is no more inevitable than the poverty of emerging ones.

And he suggested that many Western nations are in financial straits because they focused too much on providing services rather than how to pay for them.

What do you make of Harper's comments? Do you agree with him or not? Share your thoughts in the comment field below.


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