I've been reading Aung Sang Suu Kyi's Freedom from Fear (fantastic, btw), and her 1994 speech to UNESCO, Empowerment for a Culture of Peace and Development, addresses precisely this:The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income
When economics is regarded as "the most important key to every lock of every door" it is only natural that the worth of man should come to be decided largely, even wholly, by his effectiveness as an economic tool.
If material betterment, which is but a means to human happiness, is sought in ways that wound the human spirit, it can in the long run only lead to greater human suffering.
The alleviation of poverty involves processes which change the way in which the poor perceive themselves and the world. Mere material assistance is not enough; the poor must have the sense that they themselves can shape their own future.