Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Let's dump the fantasy of perpetual economic growth

 https://www.dw.com/en/five-things-you-need-to-know-about-degrowth/a-55539458

 

Even aside from the existential threat of ecological and economic collapse as we deplete resources, destroy biodiversity and heat up the planet, the assumption that economic growth generally makes us all better off is increasingly questioned. 

Developing countries tend to have high growth rates, as more people have disposable income and more markets open for consumer goods. But in industrialized countries, growth generally slows, and efforts to speed it up don't necessarily result in a better standard of living for most people. 

The work of economists like Thomas Piketty, author of "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" (which was not only lauded for compiling the most comprehensive data on wealth disparity to date, but was also a surprise bestseller), has shown that over recent decades, ordinary wages in industrialized countries like the US have stopped rising in line with productivity and growth. 

The benefits of economic growth have increasingly been going to the super-rich, with the divide between rich and poor yawning ever wider. 


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Yep.  Even just thinking about it logically, growth cannot continue exponentially when you have finite resources.

 

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