Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Why do we have to chase 'growth'

I've had quite a few discussions in the past couple of weeks with customers at markets about the economy and when the next financial crunch will happen.The general consensus is that it is only a matter of time and there will be another meltdown - maybe next year or in five year's time - who knows.
But sometimes the conversation gets around to why there is such a need for continual growth, and is it sustainable?
The answer of course is NO! But few economists or politicians want to acknowledge that because their whole reason for being is economic growth.
But there is an alternative (it's just unlikely that it's going to happen until it's forced on us by an economic collapse that makes the recent world financial turmoil and the Depression of the 1930's look mild).
The theory of a Steady State Economy has been around for a while. There a piece on the Friends of Bass Valley Bush website at http://bassbush.htmlplanet.com/rich_text_4.html that's worth checking out if you're interested.

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