Why does the economy need to continue to grow, especially in countries such as Japan where population is declining?
In: 56
The most obvious answer I can give is looking at [GDP per capita](https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/).
The global average is $17,100 per year (normalized by purchasing power in the respective country. That is, if a banana costs $10 in the US and $1 in Botswana, then you’d divide US income by 10 to get the respective purchasing power.)
Consider what $17k buys you in the US (because that’s the country that number is pegged to). It’s *well* below the poverty line. More than half the countries in the world have an average GDP under $17k. That includes the 2 most populous countries of India and China. The majority of people in the world are still very poor. We need to grow the economy so that those people can have a standard of living just approaching what we are used to in the Global West. Safe, well insulated houses, electricity, safe water, predictable safe food, reliable transportation.
Just growing the economy doesn’t guarantee that of course. There is a lot of social, economic, and political progress to be made to allow more equitability. But we can’t really make that progress without having the goods and services to provide to everyone first.
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