Current Events — HabitableZone

Current Events » in reply to Re: Empty / full

Settling hash
Fox — (archived)

<There are whole books on this subject, and I don't know if we can hash it all out here.

That's OK - a list of titles you recommend will do just fine; post it here, and I can browse the library.

What I don't see clearly yet is how permanent conversion of raw materials (even after accounting for recycling) can be held constant in any economic system, capitalist or otherwise, where the number of consumers increases at a geometric rate, without a proportional decrease in per capita wealth. Not monetary wealth, but the value to the individual of that which he/she posesses, and the availability and quality of what must be consumed out of need (food, clothing, shelter).

I do agree that individual liberty is a prerequisite for capitalism; I don't agree that capitalism is the only economy possible in an environment of individual liberty. See Ursula LeGuin's The Disposessed for discussion of an alternative resembling Israeli kibbutzim, and Robinson's Mars trilogy for other interesting concepts.

I've been using "growth" to mean three things simultaneously, all of which I understand to be desired outcomes of capitalism: an increase in available goods and services; an increase in the quality thereof; an increase of the value realized from initial investment. Am I mistaken?

Cordially,

Fox

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