I often see statements in the news from economists saying things like “only 0.2% growth reported, which might have bad effects on the economy”. In my eyes infinite growth is simply impossible when we have finite resources, or is that a misconception from my part?
Edit: thank you for all the detailed an in-depth answers! Learned a lot of new things 🙂
In: 96
Value is, at least partially, subjective, meaning that at least some portion of growth can be subjective, and not take resources.
For instance, let’s say that 100 people could:
1. stay at home and be bored for an hour
2. pay $1 for me to tell them a story
In scenario 2, I contribute $100 to the economy. Did I need to consume more?
It’s true that I had to consume some, say, food and air to be able to tell the story. However I need that regardless, so perhaps no more extra consumption than there would have been otherwise.
–
Sometimes, value can be gained from re-arranging existing things. This is, in a sense, what ‘technology’ is, and it often relates to efficiency.
For instance, let’s say that we can either:
1. use an old computer system that uses $100 of electricity to do calculations slowly
2. use a new computer system that uses $100 of electricity to do double the number of calculations in the same amount of time.
If those calculations have value, then if we can work out how to do #2, then we are doubling the value we generate from that electricity, hence growth without more consumption.
[Alternatively, maybe we do the same number of calculations, but with half the electricity, hence equal output with less consumption.]
This might require upgrading the computer systems (which is some consumption), but if we’d run the computers and use a lot of electricity, this might end up being more value for less resources used.
–
Sometimes, value exists is not being harnessed, and we can grow by harnessing some value we were missing out on. (This is similar to the ‘technology’ example above, and arguably just repeats it.)
e.g. maybe we can either
1. Let sunlight hit the ground
2. Absorb sunlight into a solar panel (or plants, or a heating system)
The sun is shining either way, and the solar panel provides more value than warming the ground does. If we don’t consume it, the ground will consume it, so us using it doesn’t increase consumption.
So the economy can grow if we build solar panels, and this might mean we consume less overall (we do consume materials to build the solar panels, but the electricity generated might mean burning less coal, for instance).
—–
That’s not to say that we therefore aren’t over-consuming things. We very well might be, and we might be doing so more and more each year.
There certainly are some forms of economic growth that do require more consumption!
However, not *all* growth is *inherently* using more consumption in an unsustainable manner. *Some* forms of growth may sustainable, and sometimes might even be able to conserve resources.
Latest Answers