On Nov 13, 1:40 am, "Robert A. Rohde" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The creation of wealth is the process by which $10 in widget parts
> become, through human effort, a $20 widget.
Fine as far as it goes, yes. I think that a big part of where I lose
the thread of the economic conventional wisdom is where it tries to
cover long time scales, where a dollar in a current year is
incommensurable with a dollar a century ago or a dollar a century in
the future.
Another issue is that if I spend a half hour driving around looking for
a parking space I am considred to be involved in economic activity
while if I were merely sitting under a tree enjoying the weather I
would not.
Much economic activity is actually contrary to well-being compared with
idleness and rest. As pressures to growth increase, it is not obvious
that the well-being of those in the growth-oriented society increases.
Eventually, the net wealth would be sufficient, and growth could only
be promoted by enforcing unnecessarily harsh partitions of the wealth.
If my thinking were valid, you would increasingly find people in more
growth-oriented societies more stressed, less happy, and less healthy
than those in less growth-oriented societies.
I believe that it's possible to make a case that exactly this is
beginning to be observable.
> Economic growth describes
> an increase in the rate at which one is able to create wealth.
Assuming that wealth is well-defined, yes..
> In theory, economic growth and environmental sustainability are
> independent concepts. One could imagine an economically growing
> society that was founded solely on renewable and recycled resources.
> In reality, the economy of our present world is heavily dependent on
> the exploitation of non-renewable resources, and so growth is often
> associated with increasing environment degradation.
>
> The admirable goal of an economically sustainable world that you
> describe need not be a world of stasis. It is likely that human
> creativity and intellectual achievement will inevitably lead to growth.
> To take an obvious example, there are an essentially limitless number
> of books, plays, and movies yet to be created. The question is not
> whether the future world will be able to forgo growth, but whether that
> world will be able to restructure their economy in a way that allows
> economic growth to develop in an environmentally sustainable and
> neutral way. Probably the biggest step along that path will be finding
> ways to meet the world's energy needs through renewable means.
I think we are in complete agreement about where we want to see the
world end up. I think our disagreement is in the appplicability of
economic theory as usually described to getting there.
> It might also be worth rembering that it is the successful, growing
> economies that are most apt to worry about pollution controls and
> nature preserves. For the US, clean water and air regulations and the
> significant imporvements that they brought are in many ways a product
> of economic success.
I believe this well-worn argument has some validity, but you will find
that those most often advancing it very quickly turn around and argue
against any particular environmental constraint on economic activity in
favor of fixing it later, a "later" that never seems to arrive.
I am not, let me make it clear, opposed to freedom, initiative,
enterprise, or even corporate capitalism. I think all these things have
an essential place in a functioning modern society. What I am
questioning is the almost universally accepted idea that "growth" is
good, or even, in the long run, well-defined.
> A successful economy that is conscious of
> environmental concerns can even derive economic growth through efforts
> to improve the environment. Even as much as it is an artificial
> imposition on the economy, a carbon cap and trade program could have
> the power to make combatting global warming into a major growth
> industry.
This well-worn argument (growth through constraint) is rarely wielded
by the same people wielding the previous one.
In general I like the people making the latter argument better.
Unfortunately, I think it is a very weak argument and I quite dislike
it. If this were true, we could benefit (on the assumption, as usual,
that "growth is good") from arbitrary regulations against any random
activity.
> Sustainability is an important long-term goal, but it is not
> intrinsically opposed to economic growth.
Perhaps not.
My point goes the other way, though. I suggest that "growth" is not
identical to well-being, and that its pursuit as if the linkage were a
tautology may increasingly, in practice, be antithetical to well-being.
mt
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