Well, borrowing is just using future production for current growth, which is more efficient but less reliable. Assuming the future production will be there (and

Well, borrowing is just using future production for current growth, which is more efficient but less reliable. Assuming the future production will be there (and that otherwise someone will take care of it for a small fee), that's obviously more efficient. It's pretty clear that proper investment is the only way to get growth. It's less clear whose wealth should be invested - that's why we have both borrowing and regulation, and by extension consumption (if you assume ceteris paribus, you damn well better advance entrenchment). Innovation and efficiency are at odds with one another, and as we get more and more complexity, the only innovations easily reachable are paradigm shifts. What we might need next is a way to simulate and bootstrap scenarios further and further from the local optimum - and that might have to be government investment.