As a fellow named John Kenneth Galbraith remarked fifty-odd years ago:

"If we are concerned about our great appetite for materials, it is
plausible to seek to increase the supply, to decrease the waste, to
make better use of the stocks that are available, and to develop
substitutes. But what of the appetite itself? Surely this is the
ultimate source of the problem. If it continues its geometric course,
will it not one day have to be restrained? Yet in the literature of
the resource problem this is the forbidden question. Over it hangs a
nearly total silence. It is as though, in the discussion of the chance
for avoiding automobile accidents, we agree not to make any mention of
speed!"

(or, not to gainsay Richard M. Nixon, "They invite us to join them in
playing what is rapidly becoming the most fashionable political parlor
game of our time—a game we might call growthmanship...")

On Sun, Jan 11, 2009 at 7:43 PM, Max B. Sawicky <[email protected]> wrote:
> Third, the whole emphasis now is on reducing an "output gap" (7% says CBO).
> But in consideration of T. 'Father Time' Walker, this is not the way to go.
>  We
> have rather a well-being gap that is not necessarily served by policies
> aimed at
> (and succeeding in a limited way) herding people back into employment.

-- 
Sandwichman
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