Budget day today....
Got me thinking about something I have thought for a long time....economic growth. Success in an economy is measured in terms of growth...ie how much more we spend on consumer goods, how many houses we have built, how rich we become and therefore how much more we may spend yet!
This is quite frankly barking mad....how on earth (and yes literally 'how on earth') are we to keep up this never ending expansion and growth?.....surely something is going to snap if we keep stretching for more and more yet success seems these days to be measured by growth and failure by decline and stagnation.
However perhaps if we look at the words used and looked at them in a different way and not in such negative terms and made stagnation into consolidation, made decline into good housekeeping and growth into greed we would actually be able to work out 'how on earth' we might have enough resources left in the world....!
2 comments:
Many years ago Val, (before George was even a tiny seedling, let alone a bush)I was listning to a budget that forecast a "5% year on year all sector growth [loud background applause]."
I picked up my calculator and starting with 100 added 5% for the first year,then another 5% next and so on for the years after.
Only 14 times (years) later I had reached the figure of 197.99 and by 20 times (years)had reached 265.
So... we were going to produce and consume in fourteen years; twice the amount of everything and build twice the amount of infrastructure.
OK then, so the earth really is flat and forget the laws of physics, there actually is a man called Atlas holding it up on his shoulders.
the idea of constant non-stop growth would be funny if it were not so utterly tragic
I agree. We are compelled into consumerism to fill the corporate coffers. But I, for one, have become frugal and thrifty and it is so refreshing...
Why can't we be led from a love of Things towards seeking experiences, learning, spiritual and emotional well-being?
Isn't there a way that these could harnessed to drive a new economy for this third millenium?
Sometimes I can't help thinking how Gaia must have breathed a sigh of relief when the factory production slowed down amd the rape of the planet's resources declined slightly during the last two years.
I do think that we'll look back and say "Yes, it was good for us"
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