The Myth that Growth is BAD and the Earth is Limited

One realizes there are serious environmental issues and that attention to said issues is critical to long term wellbeing of humanity. When there is an environmental issue, look to environmental solutions. A market economy is value neural; an unfettered market distributes goods and services in an extremely efficient manner. It cares not about the environment, it cares not about inequality – it does one thing, it manages the distribution of goods and services between parties under the rubric of supply and demand.  So stop blaming the market economy for social and environmental problems, especially when you look around the world and see the countries with a market economy, rule of law and property rights represent the healthiest and most prosperous in human history.

Growth is a good thing. An expanding economy provides an opportunity for young people and the disadvantaged.  A FREE MARKET permits participation influenced completely by one's ability to bring a good or service to market in a competitive way. A FREE MARKET is colour blind and is blind to sexuality - there is a product, there is a demand, fill the demand and you derive benefit. This is an overriding truth - a FREE MARKET is value-neutral. When you see racial discrimination, sexual inequality or inequality generally, look to what's causing the problem as opposed to blaming the market. 

There is no rational connection between environmental degradation and economic growth. In the 1980's the US economy decoupled from fossil fuels - prior, the consumption of fossil fuel climbed in lockstep with the economy. The reason this transpired is, the economy moved toward an intellectual economy, growth is now coming from services and development of intellectual property in the form of advanced technologies - in the new economy, growth is taking us away from fossil fuel consumption.

The Malthusian proposition is just stupid. This is the belief that the earth's resources are finite and people are going to consume themselves out of existence, it is unfounded. The Malthusian proposition emerges from 1778 and the experience of some island dwellers, it is completely ineffectual as a metaphor for the entire universe. As Churchill once said, "mother earth is a generous provider". The easiest thing to sell to humanity, especially those who have been unjustly treated, is scarcity. Scarcity is lodged in our brains because over our evolution we've had little or no capacity to pull away from it.

The fact is, the universe is limitless, the fact is that we have plenty of resources, food and materials for a generalised state of prosperity. The solution to seeing a generalized state of prosperity lies in seeding opportunity to people and advocating taking things from people only serves to retard progress. I have never understood why in the face of overwhelming evidence, people persist in biting the hand that feeds them.