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It’s not just an arms race. Growth funds everything, including social programs and saving the environment. Granted some growth (productivity driven) is better
by mathattack 7y ago
It’s not just an arms race. Growth funds everything, including social programs and saving the environment.
Granted some growth (productivity driven) is better than others (resource driven.)
For better or worse we can’t fund solutions to the world’s problems with austerity.
- fhood 7y agoAlso isn't growth a natural result of human progress? As science and technology move forwards they allow for more productivity per person and thus drive growth right? Or is that an overly simplistic notion?
- BlueTemplar 7y agoYes, but the whole issue is how we are running out of mineral/natural/ecological resources. And at an exponential speed.
- mamon 7y agoProgress also means that we can use resources more efficiently, e.g. by recycling them. By limiting progress (and growth) you're also making resource use less eficient, so that we'll run out of them faster.
- BlueTemplar 7y agoJevon's Paradox means that increasing efficiency also increases resource use, and us running out of them faster !
- nradov 7y agoEnvironmental damage is a problem but we certainly aren't running out of most minerals. Mineral extraction volume worldwide is steady or increasing for most types.
- BlueTemplar 7y agoYou're right, I should have been more careful using that term - but for how long ? Last time I checked, we only had a few decades left of potential resource extraction growth before we hit ~half of eventually extracted resources, and the production would start to decline.
- mathattack 7y agoPer capita growth is relatively recent in the long arc of history. (Last 300 years?)
- poutrathor 7y ago> Growth funds saving the environment What we have to read these days -_-