2024-05-0220:37 Status:Pseudo Tags: Capitalism, Neoliberalism
Overview
Many economists believe that an infinitely growing economy is necessary as society becomes more modern. This has been accepted as truth for the past 200 years - moving from Agrarianism to Industrialism, society shifted from a Zero sum game to a Positive sum game (people can have mutually beneficial transactions). These economists would argue that if society were to shift back to such a zero-sum game, we would unnecessarily fight over resources, labor, capital etc. instead of generating new value.
The question of infinite growth is of maintaining a supposedly positive sum game with finite resources.
In a general sense, Value = Labor + Capital + Resources As the efficiency of producing value increased, society could (supposedly*) produce more value with the same (or less if we are being generous) amount of fixed resources. How is efficiency improved? - Technology (However technology also has its own value function) The problem with this is that the West produces waste at an unsustainable rate in the form of Global Warming, Pollution etc. This destroys natural resources (or makes them less available).
This leaves two stances:
- Those who believe that ingenuity will rise with technology. E.g. Germany increased their GDP while reducing CO2 emissions. - The problem with this is that the rate of ingenuity may be too slow (or at least unpredictable) = may not be reasonable.
- Those who believe that we should shift to a Degrowth or Postgrowth economy