Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Econimc Growth: Is It Harmful?
Arguably the most significant issue that separates the current dominant neoclassical paradigm from the proposed ecological one is the view of economic growth. One side contends that economic growth is essential for the alleviation of poverty and squalor while the other side argues that if the specie is to survive then the concept of the desirability of economic growth ought to be abolished. What do you think?
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4 comments:
If some possible outcomes of economic growthare ecological degradation and economic poverty then why should more of the same be relied on to produce different results in the future?
New technology tends only to promote unnecessary consumption, as even a cursory study of the philosophy of technology will demonstrate (see Martin Heidegger, Hans Jonas, Langdon Winner, Neil Postman, etc.).
More efficient expansion will not alter the paradigm of effiency as both ends and means under which we're operating. In a world where growth promotes polarization of wealth, growth can never be a solution to economic inequality or to any constituents of its lovely little entourage.
Growth breeds expansion, expansion breeds consumption, consumption breeds necessity. The larger the 'leviathan' grows, the more it needs to consume to sustain itself.
Chris,
Excellent post. Can we break out of this vicious cycle?
Ryan,
Unfortunately a "race to the bottom" has become a major criteria of where to produce. Again I ask , what is the way out?
I tend to agree with Heidegger's conclusion in his "Question Concerning Technology," where he writes that breaking out of the cycle will require that we continue to question it: "The closer we come to the danger, the more brightly do the ways into the saving power begin to shine and the more questioning we become. For questioning is the piety of thought."
Whether I believe this will happen in a way widespread enough to break the cycle, though, is another question entirely... I don't believe that the world as a whole is capable of becoming aware of the environmental crisis in any meaningful way until the crisis presents itself in such a powerful fashion that it will likely already be too late to remedy it.
Of course, after we're all gone (or at least fairly well decimated), I think the story will change.
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