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From: faustus@ucbvax.UUCP (Wayne Christopher)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics
Subject: Re: Fallacies of Zero-growth Economies
Message-ID: <1690@ucbvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Aug-84 12:48:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.1690
Posted: Wed Aug 22 12:48:30 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 23-Aug-84 07:32:49 EDT
References: <464@rdin.UUCP>
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 36

> Fallacy 1: A growing GNP means a growing consumption of energy
>	     and raw materials.

This seems quite reasonable to me. More technology does mean
more efficient use of energy, but I doubt that this can keep up
with the rate of expansion of a reasonably healthy economy (say
an increase of 5% / year).  The example with the 7090 and the
PC's cannot be applied to the economy as a whole -- certainly
the computer industry is not representative of the rest. Of
course, a growing GNP probably means that better ways of getting
these raw materials and power are being developed, so we don't
have to worry about huge coal-burning plants and strip mines
being the result of economic growth.


> Fallacy 3: Isn't there some inherent limit as to how large the
>	     economy can grow?

This is also reasonable, and I think that the limit must be tied
to the amount of space that we have to expand into. However, if
there is such a limit, we're certainly nowhere near it. The
thing to worry about is that the closer we get, the worse the
"quality of life" will become -- the world will take on the
appearance of one huge factory, and its inhabitants, although
quite wealthy by our standards, will live their lives sealed in
huge living complexes.

Now, this is a worst-case situation, but somthing is clear -- if
we want the economy to continue to expand, we have to look for
alternatives such as space-based industry. Although there seem
to be no built-in limits to economic expansion, the environment
and our own mental well-being will inevitably suffer unless we
try to direct economic growth towards space.

	Wayne