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Of course, the MBAs pushing for growth missed on physics class that it is impossible for everyone to growth expontentially.
by pjmlp 8mo ago
Of course, the MBAs pushing for growth missed on physics class that it is impossible for everyone to growth expontentially.
- canadiantim 8mo agoOr biology class to learn that resources grow linearly (arithmetically) but populations grow geometrically (exponentially). So it is possible for everyone to grow exponentially, it's just not sustainable and generally leads to mass famine, disease or war.
- gus_massa 8mo agoOr a transition form exponential to sigmoid grow, if it's slow enough. I remember cases of exponential grow of bacteria in lakes that ends in a disaster, but an unchecked garden will get a lot of plants and tree grow but I think it will stabilize softly.
- zelphirkalt 8mo agoMBA think: This is my job. All good, as long as _we_ have it good.
- AndrewKemendo 8mo agoThere are zero communities larger than a few thousand people that do not think precisely like this This is every affinity group on the planet including: Extended families Religious groups Fraternal organzations Mutual aid groups Nation states It’s also true of fungi, tree systems, bacterial colonies, insect groups…
- tehjoker 8mo agoThis is the malthusian argument, and in a vacuum it sounds right but didn’t account for decreasing family size with wealth and the ability of the economy to just barely eke out something like a percent or two of surplus. In China, the one child policy, for better or worse, was instituted to ensure that gains from industrialization were not eaten up immediately, leaving no surplus for quality of life and reinvestment. malthus had a point but it is not destiny and the real world reflects that. his was an avoidable trap now if we can gain control over capitalism we can save the earth
- MyHonestOpinon 8mo agowe can save our children/grandchildren from a lot of pain an suffering. The earth will be here long after we are gone.
- Aurornis 8mo agoYet population growth is slowing while our access to resources is growing rapidly. Human population growth is not exponential. That’s so obvious that it’s hard to take anything about this argument seriously. Biology isn’t a good proxy for society-scale economic changes.
- disconcision 8mo agowe had nearly 2 centuries of roughly exponential growth. ended in the 60s but not everyone got the memo
- pfdietz 8mo agoIs "roughly exponential growth" being used as a synonym for "growth"? Exponential is used as a scare word. It's not just growth, it's exponential growth! Run and scream in fright! Because if you don't do what I say you must do, we are exponentially doomed. Dooooomed!
- disconcision 8mo agoi can't speak for everyone, but in the above assertion am using 'roughly exponential' to mean that world population between say 1880 and 1960 followed a curve that is, roughly, exponential, in the technical sense. much of the discourse 50 years ago, e.g. the population bomb, was predicated on this observation.
- pfdietz 8mo agoRough is doing heavy lifting there, so much so that I suggest it doesn't have any meaning except to say the population was growing. The growth from 1980 to 1960 certainly was not exponential: the percentage growth per year was all over the place, varying on the same time scale as the doubling time (or even faster). https://ourworldindata.org/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/qLq-8BTgXU8yG0N6HnOy8g/2d3c25c3-b784-4c9c-454f-14d8d304ee00/w=1350 https://ourworldindata.org/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/qLq-8BTgXU8... I suspect it's not a coincidence that the population bomb scare occurred right after the collapse of European colonialism, although teasing out the causation could be interesting.
- boxed 8mo agoObviously it's an S curve yes, but we are so far from living in an Ian M. Banks Culture novel that we don't have to worry for probably a million years. Anti-growth people are ideologues with bad imagination and some pseudo-religious hate of humanity driving their political trend.
- paganel 8mo agoThe opposite of what you’re saying was considered ludicrous and conspiracy theory-like until not long ago on forums like this one or on Reddit. Just go to almost any post involving Hans Rosling (especially just pre-2016, post-GFC but pre-Trump) and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
- GuB-42 8mo agoOh, they know, and the smart ones cash out before it breaks down.
- GolfPopper 8mo ago“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!” - Upton Sinclair
- Aurornis 8mo ago> impossible for everyone to growth expontentially. Where is the population growing exponentially?
- pjmlp 8mo agoWhat have MBAs to do with population?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- graemep 8mo agoMaybe they know about Malthus saying the same thing and being proven wrong? We have had millennia of exponential growth. Slower in the past, and positive over the long term for a long time (since the bronze age collapse at a global level?). Technological advance allows growth that is far higher than increases in resource usage. We often do the same thing on far lower resources than it used to take - sometimes far better.
- pjmlp 8mo agoThe people at the layoffs side when growth doesn't meet the exponential quarter targets, or destroyed villages to build a few hotel chains that deplet water banks for their golf fields, haven't noticed it.
- graemep 8mo agoA real problem, but a different one. Bad decisions, bad government, bad distribution of resources. It does not alter the underlying trend which is better for the vast majority of people.
- pjmlp 8mo agoOnly when that vast majority is synonymous with the upper class driving their Ferraris into work, or heli-taxis.
- graemep 8mo agoAlmost everywhere in the world the standard of living of the average person is far higher than it was a hundred years ago, when it was far higher than it was 500 years ago, when it was far higher than it was a thousand years ago.
- pjmlp 8mo agoThankfully, until it got messed up with MBA folks destroying society, and the planet, with late stage capitalism to meet those quarter targets.
- Gagarin1917 8mo agoMBA’s have a goal for growth. That doesn’t mean it will happen. Lots of companies fail or shrink. Also, it’s not an MBA/capitalism thing. Every socialist leader throughout history promised more growth, they just thought it should be more equitable. Ever heard of Five Year Plans? They’re still going on in places around the world. Having a goal for growth is a global phenomenon across all economic systems. If you feel like this is a problem, then it’s much larger than any one job type or even any one economic system.
- pjmlp 8mo agoIndeed, and when it doesn't happen, the others pay for their failure, while they get a bonus package.