Economic growth is the closest thing there is to a global religion. Rich and poor, left and right, Christians and Muslims and Buddhists and sub-Saharan animist pagans – everyone except a handful of greens is certain that growth is the answer to life, universal prosperity and almost everything else. Because government investment. Because consumer buying power. And above all because jobs.

In the rich world, jobs are the only serious reason left for believing. The growth god is invoked in response to every new quarterly unemployment statistic, often as something to be “kickstarted” by some or other government initiative involving lower taxes or lighter regulation.

This is strange. After all, if jobs really are the ultimate objective, then ways can certainly be found to create them without recourse to constantly rising economic activity. Investment and deregulation in job-creating sectors, for example.

So why not ditch the growth proxy and just worship at the shrine to jobs instead? Endless growth has unpleasant side effects and is clearly unsustainable in the long term. Full employment is no panacea either, but it surely makes for a more rational deity.