I've always been confused by growth arguments. Population and carrying capacity of the earth has always been one such argument. Are we near the carrying capacit

I've always been confused by growth arguments. Population and carrying capacity of the earth has always been one such argument. Are we near the carrying capacity now? Are we nowhere close to it? Have we already exceeded it? These are harder questions than people think, as technological and societal improvements can seriously modify this number. Thomas Malthus has been famously mocked for supposing that we had serious carrying capacity problems, only to be completely scooped by the agricultural revolution. But, even if we agree that we are nowhere near the carrying capacity of the earth, there must be some number which does exceed it. And so growth cannot continue forever. And in that time, what do we do? How do we back off growth without ruin? Why wait for that higher number? Why not learn how to back off growth earlier than the highest possible limit? These are questions which I don't often see addressed when people discuss growth, stagnation, and the health of nations.