One of the problems with modern consumer capitalism is that it needs those pesky consumers. people to buy stuff. The damn robots don't buy anything.
Except you have to pay them stuff, which cuts into your profits.... but, MAYBE, you can just sell stuff to foreigners--who think that $3 a hour is a lot of money (and actually is, given thei…
One of the problems with modern consumer capitalism is that it needs those pesky consumers. people to buy stuff. The damn robots don't buy anything.
Except you have to pay them stuff, which cuts into your profits.... but, MAYBE, you can just sell stuff to foreigners--who think that $3 a hour is a lot of money (and actually is, given their cost of living).
OR, you could sell them the stuff on credit and lock people up in debt peonage--and if they default, the government will bail you out because the credit company is too big to fail (and you have a lot of pull with the politicians, as in you bought them) so you get your money anyway. Some stockholders and pension holders took it in the shorts--but they should have been smarter and harder working and been plutocrats like you, so screw em. The financial fund you oversee took a hit, but you made a lot of money on commissions/fees and you got out before it went south because you saw it coming.
A consumer-capitalist society is unsustainable in the long term. It is profitable for a few people until you hit the limit and subsequent collapse... because, too few resources left, or too many people (resulting in too few resources). A reliance on continual sustained growth ends up being very dangerous.
At some point you will run out of new customers or resources. May not be this decade or century, but barring the discovery of a viable FTL transport system and/or direct conversion of energy into matter a la Star Trek, it will come at some point.
Would you be able to summarize what the alternative(s )might be to constant GDP growth? It strikes a chord with me because this was something my late father frequently mentioned. Sometimes when I was grown and visiting home he and I would stay up late drinking a wee bit and he invariably brought up his worry that constant growth was unsustainable and alternative, prosperity creating, economies must be discovered/created.
As it is formulated, constant (unlimited, endless, infinite) GDP growth seems like a choice: if we want it, we can have it.
As it happens, we are on a spaceship called "earth", with limited resources onboard; therefore there will be an end to the growth path we are on right now.
What happens after we stop changing cars, computers, homes (you name it) every other year, it is impossible to say, because we are not there yet.
Perhaps we should stop thinking and talking about the GDP as much as we do. All growth is not measured by GDP; if you read a book and learn something new, isn't that growth too -- or simply the time you spend with people you like?
One of the problems with modern consumer capitalism is that it needs those pesky consumers. people to buy stuff. The damn robots don't buy anything.
Except you have to pay them stuff, which cuts into your profits.... but, MAYBE, you can just sell stuff to foreigners--who think that $3 a hour is a lot of money (and actually is, given their cost of living).
OR, you could sell them the stuff on credit and lock people up in debt peonage--and if they default, the government will bail you out because the credit company is too big to fail (and you have a lot of pull with the politicians, as in you bought them) so you get your money anyway. Some stockholders and pension holders took it in the shorts--but they should have been smarter and harder working and been plutocrats like you, so screw em. The financial fund you oversee took a hit, but you made a lot of money on commissions/fees and you got out before it went south because you saw it coming.
A consumer-capitalist society is unsustainable in the long term. It is profitable for a few people until you hit the limit and subsequent collapse... because, too few resources left, or too many people (resulting in too few resources). A reliance on continual sustained growth ends up being very dangerous.
At some point you will run out of new customers or resources. May not be this decade or century, but barring the discovery of a viable FTL transport system and/or direct conversion of energy into matter a la Star Trek, it will come at some point.
“A consumer-capitalist society is unsustainable in the long term.”
It is possible to live sustainably and successfully without the constant need for GDP growth. But it requires a whole different mindset.
Would you be able to summarize what the alternative(s )might be to constant GDP growth? It strikes a chord with me because this was something my late father frequently mentioned. Sometimes when I was grown and visiting home he and I would stay up late drinking a wee bit and he invariably brought up his worry that constant growth was unsustainable and alternative, prosperity creating, economies must be discovered/created.
It seems to me that your question has a flaw.
As it is formulated, constant (unlimited, endless, infinite) GDP growth seems like a choice: if we want it, we can have it.
As it happens, we are on a spaceship called "earth", with limited resources onboard; therefore there will be an end to the growth path we are on right now.
What happens after we stop changing cars, computers, homes (you name it) every other year, it is impossible to say, because we are not there yet.
Perhaps we should stop thinking and talking about the GDP as much as we do. All growth is not measured by GDP; if you read a book and learn something new, isn't that growth too -- or simply the time you spend with people you like?
GDP growth, but less by goods and more by services?