One problem is the belief and core assumption that growth can go on forever, another is the belief and core assumption that pensions (and, depending upon where one is in the world, social welfare benefits) are a fundamental right. Personal experience and observation tell me that if an economist or politician offers a future of sustainable growth, then he is she is right and clearly knows what he or she is talking about. If someone like myself points out that a finite world equates to finite limits to growth and it looks like we either have reached or are getting very close to reaching that point, then the response is “you can’t tell the future” and “we must have growth”.
That very strong core assumption is a positive in the short term due to keeping the populace content in the belief that things will be better in the future, but a negative in the medium to long term as it means that nobody is motivated to do anything to plan and prepare (including psychologically) for what lies ahead.
People continue to take on mortgages, pay for vacations with credit cards (including credit cards linked to mortgages), because of such assumptions about never-ending growth. I get emails from Greenpeace (due to my having supported them in the past) making it clear that they (being supposedly environmentally aware) assume that we can keep our civilization and lifestyles intact without fossil fuels thanks to wind turbines and solar panels.
Nobody wants to hear or to know that we aren’t going to have the desired wind turbines and solar panels without abundant supplies of cheap and easy fossil fuels.
We live in a world where looking beyond the immediate surface and thinking would seem to be very much out of fashion and unwelcome.
Posts
