Crisis = The Clashing Point Between An Economy Of Infinite Growth And The Limits Of Finite Resources
Economic growth is effectively over.
There are practical limits to debt, and we’re hitting them. There are practical limits to energy sources, and we’re hitting them. There are real limits to the planet’s ability to absorb our wastes and industrial accidents, and we’ve hit those too.
We’re being told that the economy is recovering. But take away new debt the government has taken on since 2008 to stimulate the economy, and there’s been no real economic growth. There is no recovery. It’s all been done with more debt. We’ve already mortgaged our grandchildren’s future, but to keep the economy from relapsing, we’ll need to borrow even more. The game is up. We’ve reached the end of economic growth as we’ve known it.”
Unlike Many Think, There Is No ‘They’ To Blame For This Crisis: Everybody’s Addicted To Economic Growth
We all got hooked on growth. Rising GDP numbers became our main measure of success. ‘More, bigger and faster’ meant ‘better.’
We’re all addicted to growth. We all want better jobs and higher returns on investments. But we live on a finite planet.
The end of growth is not the fault of any one politician or a political party, but some people benefited from growth more than others.”
To Live Without Economic Growth, We’ll Have To Start Doing A Few Things Differently
We can live without economic growth, but we’ll have to start doing a few things differently:
- We have to measure and aim for improvements in life that don’t require increasing our consumption of fossil fuels and other depleting resources, or piling on more debt.
- Freedom, being with the people we love, good health and the time to enjoy it, a secure happy community.”
Video: Who Killed Economic Growth?
All the quotes in this post are by Richard Heinberg, senior fellow of the Post Carbon Institute who has written extensively on energy, economic, and ecological issues, including oil depletion, taken from this video made by the Post Carbon Institute, Who Killed Economic Growth?