What distinguishes good growth from bad growth?
Good growth stops and turns into a maturing process. This is what all natural things do. We grow until we become adults, as do all animals. Trees grow until they reach a certain height. Then they concentrate on improving their root system and thereby their communication with other forest beings. Cells grow until they reach a limit. When they keep growing we call them cancerous.
By that metric isn’t our economic system and the very idea of permanent economic growth cancerous?
>By that metric isn’t our economic system and the very idea of permanent economic growth cancerous?
By that definition, I don’t see any other conclusion.
as long as the population grows, economic growth will be organic and necessary.
“the economy” is simply a measure of goods and services produced and consumed, right? More mouths to feed, homes and offices to furnish, etc. mean economic growth, yes?
the more important questions, imho, are the way those goods, services, and the resulting profits are distributed – and whether population growth is sustainable. if not, what is the solution?
and, can we shift our paradigms around consumption, and hence, production?
trees and most other natural systems are self-regulating, it seems. perhaps humans are too, and we just don’t like the results of that self-regulation – a crowded planet, collapsing animal populations and other food systems, changing climates.