It's damned stupid. Eternal growth is a capitalist wet dream, not a practical reality. Economies expand and contract, inflate and deflate. It can't all just go one way, no matter how much you wish the numbers to only go up. Then there's the other issue: I (and most others I know in my age bracket) don't care at all about whether or not there are enough bedpan-emptiers and diaper-changers to clean up the nursing home. I don't care if the stock market crashes and the economy contracts, because I'll be at the bottom regardless. I'm not going to sacrifice my happiness and way of life just to prop up a system that wants me to slave away at less than $15/hr my whole life.
4 comments
[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 14.9 ms ] thread"Extinction" is strawmanning it though, the case is about living in a society with a shrinking wealth and growing dependency ratio.
The expectation is that the average standard of living in such society will fall compared to an era of widespread prosperity.
Aspiration for continuous improvement in material condition is far more general than just a specific quirk associated with capitalism.