Forget A Growth Economy
Nov 14
- The time has come to seriously reevaluate our continuing dependence on the idea of an ongoing growth economy
- It has simply outlived and lost its relevancy and usefulness
- Most importantly, it has failed miserably to grow the world and the United States out of poverty and misery
Who Actually Benefits From a Growth Economy
It is clear that Africa, Asia, South America, parts of Eastern Europe and even Central America and Mexico continue to fester in third world conditions, struggling to feed their millions or billions, while a lucky and privileged minority live in middle or upper class conditions.
Too Many People Chasing Too Few Resources
- Because of continually growing populations that are even accelerating their rates of growth in some areas, the world is in a race to control finitely limited and already deeply depleted resources
- It is a simple math problem: too many people chasing after, and in a deadly competition for, rapidly depleting resources
- Every military conflict in the 20th and 21st centuries did, does now, and will in the future reflect that telling circumstance
The Fallacy of GDP and Three Percent
You can play with all the GDP and three percent growth figures you want, but in the end they only reflect more distribution of goods to a relatively small group of people compared to total populations.
And no matter how much the privileged in this world justify and try to protect what a growth economy has in many cases unfairly provided them, the fact remains that the ever increasing have-nots in this country and the rest of the world will continue to be further indentured by any economy based on increasing GDP’s for the more fortunate economic classes combined with spiraling population growth.
That model will continue to manipulate and exploit the less fortunate, rather than free them.
Dec 21, 2011 @ 08:35:50
I am happy to see that I am not the only sane person around.
Your column is brilliant and simple but most will never get it. At least, not for another few hundred years. It will never happen if critical reasoning is not nurtured in schools.
Unfortunately, in many cases, wealth is made by taking advantage of the less knowledgeable and less educated. It is not in the interest of the people who benefit( clergy, politicians, business, etc) to have the masses made up of thinking people. They want obedient consumers and cheap workers.
Please keep writing and putting out the word.
Thank you.