3 ms·
> There's a physical reality that at some point it must stop. There's plenty of room at the bottom, the sky's the limit, etc, etc. Technological improvement is
by dodobirdlord 6y ago
> There's a physical reality that at some point it must stop.
There's plenty of room at the bottom, the sky's the limit, etc, etc. Technological improvement is the main (arguably only) long-term driver of growth and there's every indication that we're nowhere near done tapping what's available. Energy consumption per capita in the United States has been trending down for decades now. The "infinite grown in a finite world" criticism of economic growth may have merit thousands of years from now, but it certainly has no merit today.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.PCAP.KG.OE?locations=US https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.PCAP.KG.OE?locat...
- oblio 6y agoI think his point is that the focus should be on intensive growth (use the existing people better, make their lives better) over extensive growth (have more people). Though, OP, there are geopolitical issues with this, as Australia was extremely close to discovering in 1941. That's why Australia opened its immigration policy.
- beaner 6y agoI mostly meant in terms of population. There is a physical limit to the number of people who can be on earth. If economic growth is dependent on population growth as many seem to be suggesting, then we need to reckon with that. And we should do it sooner rather than later.
- dodobirdlord 6y agoMore people means more technological development, which is then rapidly disseminated in the modern world. World population is estimated to peak sometime this century and trend downward from there. Combine that with the fact that eventually most other countries will have comparable standards of living and the free unlimited immigrants gravy train will end, but while it's available, immigration is great policy.