While I understand this sentiment, we do need to balance the short term and the long term. And in the long term, economic growth is compound growth. Consider a

While I understand this sentiment, we do need to balance the short term and the long term. And in the long term, economic growth is compound growth. Consider an example. Country 1 grows at 2.5% (like the US) Country 2 grows at 1.5% (like the EU) What is the difference after 100 years? The first country will have grown by 1200%. The second country by 440%. The faster growing country is now almost 3x richer than the second country. This is comparable to the difference between Romania and Austria currently. As these growth effects compound, I believe that it will become hard to compete on quality of life long term.