Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There is no single theory that is used in economics that considers the finite nature of resources. It's shocking.
We used to live in a world where the price of resources came down steadily, and now the world has changed. You have a great mismatch between finite resources and exponential population growth.
I do not believe you can have infinite population or economic growth in a finite world. We are living on the shoulders of some awesome geometric curves.
Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet.
I feel humiliated that I live in a country that demands more already. Why do we cling to the notion that not only must we maintain the current level of consumption, but that it must continue to grow by an exponential factor of 2 to 7 percent every year?
You cannot carry on forever squeezing the productive bit of the economy in order to fund an unprecedented engorgement of the unproductive bit.
In a finite world this means that the per capita share of the world's goods must steadily decrease.
The whole world is determined by trade - which is really the blood of the world. The driving force is everyone's desire to have a better life. How? By consuming. For countries, the 'Holy Grail' is economic growth.
It's not enough to have economic growth. You have to distribute wealth throughout all of society.
That the powers of labour, and of the other instruments which produce wealth, may be indefinitely increased by using their products as the means of further production.