The preoccupation with growth is one of the core impediments preventing us from addressing our perilous predicament. The pervasive influence of this flawed belief is antithetical to our efforts to respond to the crises we face at a scale commensurate with the threats. The logic is inescapable, in a finite world we cannot grow infinitely. The growth mindset ignores environmental and social processes, and this augurs biophysical devastation and societal dysfunction (Brown & Timmerman, 2015). Unbridled growth is both uneconomic and amoral. Despite decades of data, we have not altered our trajectory because we do not see the dangers of our obsession.
Fallacy of the Kuznets Curve
The mistaken belief that growth can be good for both society and the environment has been expressed in variations of what is known as the Kuznets Curve. This is a hypothesis advanced by economist Simon Kuznets in the 1950s and 1960s. It is a graphical representation of the notion that as an economy develops, market forces first increase and then decrease economic inequality. The Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesizes that in the early stages of growth, nature tends to suffer and in the later stages it benefits. However, both hypotheses are contradicted by the facts. According to research published by Harvard University, inequality does not decrease with economic development. Research out of Tufts University indicates that we are being misled by the idea of an environmental Kuznets curve.
The bulk of research convincingly indicates that the growth mindset degrades the environment, diminishes our quality of life, and ultimately threatens life itself. Simply stated, sustainable growth is an oxymoron. As ecological economist Jon Erickson wrote, “economic growth and environmental protection are fundamentally in conflict with one another”.
The inherent perils of growth are explained by Kent Welton, the author of Cap-Con: The Economics of Balance. Welton explains as follows: “The real meaning of capital’s ‘progress’ is that growth must proceed until all desirable optimums are exhausted and destroyed. Preservation of any human or ecological balance and more desirable state of affairs is denied in theory and practice.”
The preoccupation with growth leads to reduced levels of social protection, diminished ecological health, and inequity. This is one of the conclusions from the book The Good Life Beyond Growth: New Perspectivesby Rosa & Henning. Welton succinctly states the preoccupation with growth, “is doomed to produce social and ecological ruin and political turmoil.”
The preoccupation with growth is embedded in our systems
Growth is a fundamentally unsustainable belief system that holds sway over the way we see the world. It is rooted in our economic system, shapes our social structures, and influences our politics. From the moment we are born we are steeped in the quasi-religious dogma that venerates growth as sacrosanct.
The growth mindset is deeply embedded in our overarching ideological orientation, and it insinuates itself in every aspect of our lives. It influences our language and how we think, it frames our worldview, limits our understanding, and prevents us from conceiving of effective solutions.
The cult-like worship of growth is woven into the fabric of our way of life. As Australian academic and author, Ted (F.E.) Trainer explains, “an economy, society, and culture that is, fiercely and blindly committed to constant and limitless increases in production and consumption and ‘living standards’… is also an economy structured in such a way that it must have growth, or it implodes…It is an unavoidable ‘grow or die’ trap.”
Questioning our preoccupation with unfettered growth is considered economic heresy in most societies. This is especially true in more conservative quarters. For many–and not just those on the right–the belief in growth holds messianic appeal and any who question it are derisively dismissed.
While most revere growth, Paul Ehrlich describes it as, “the most pervasive social disease in America… most economists are hooked on growth the way junkies are hooked on heroin.” In the context of a social and geophysical understanding of our world, the obsession with growth may be best understood as a form of collective psychosis.
Mainstream politics is preoccupied with growth, so there is no political alternative to this dysfunctional mindset. It permeates the economic policy positions of all major parties across the gamut of political ideologies.
The broken logic of growth is doctrinaire on both sides of the political spectrum. Although they may differ on how to get there, both conservatives and progressives subscribe to economic models predicated on growth.
The fixation with growth has been widely inculcated into the foundations of economic thought. This complex belief system—forged over the last two centuries—relies on measurements like GDP and trade volume. However, our focus on such metrics has created a rapacious economy that is dismantling society and the earth’s natural systems.
Our conceptions of economic growth are fundamentally incompatible with efforts to live within planetary boundaries. Unregulated expansion is both unsustainable and dysfunctional.
The exclusion of environmental and social costs is the greatest market failure we have ever seen. The neoliberal growth that girds our economies is destroying the social fabric and biophysical life support system upon which we and our economies depend. We must come to terms with evidence indicating we cannot decouple growth from diminishing quality of life, increased environmental impacts, and more resource use.
The cancer of growthism
The suicidal support for growth is rooted in growthism which is the idea that measurable productivity and growth are the purpose of human organization. Growthism runs counter to humanity’s need to live within the thermodynamic and biological limits of our environment. Growthism has eradicated around 70 percent of wildlife populations in the last half-century. In addition to biophysical degradation, growthism contributes to other aspects of the global polycrisis including authoritarianism, oligopoly, debt, corruption, class conflict, poverty, and homelessness.
Explicit or implied, belief in growthism is ubiquitous, even though most do not realize that they have swallowed this poison pill. As Welton explained, the vast majority do not consciously assent to growth. The reason we don’t see the peril we are in is because we see growth as an immutable fixture. According to cultural theorist Erik Lindberg, growthism is inexorably embedded in our systems, directing and controlling them, and giving the false impression of an inescapable natural law.
Rather than challenge a broken paradigm, our institutions and beliefs lead us to idolize growthism and growthists. As Lindberg points out, “Every American hero from Christopher Columbus to the present has been a Growthist; and this has not of course changed with the entrepreneurial hero.”
We revere an obsession that is dismantling the planet’s interconnected ecosystems and unraveling the ties that bind us together. Edward Abbey, an American author, and environmental advocate, compared our obsession with growth to the ideology of a cancer cell. In a similar vein, Welton wrote, “growthism is a cancer-producing continual per-capita diminishment and illusory profit – until space for natural freedom is exhausted and our enclosure, dependency, and despair are complete.”
Population growth illustrates the confusion that confounds the growthist mindset. Population expansion is often mistaken for increased productivity. It is important to note that burgeoning populations also result in per-capita declines in the quality of life.
As Nobel Prize-winning American economist Paul Samuelson explained, “A growing nation is the greatest Ponzi game ever contrived. Much of what we measure as growth is not about increased productivity it is a function of increasing populations. This is more accurately understood as a per-capita decline in the essential quality of life as measured by overcrowding, environmental degradation, and resource consumption.”
Growth derived from population increases is not prosperity or progress. The higher returns generated by this type of economy are attributable to low wages not increased productivity. Only a very select few derive benefits from the way the system is structured.
Elites capitalizing on the illusion of growth
While most are woefully oblivious to the dangers associated with the growthist mindset, some knowingly strive to suck every dollar they can out of us and our dying planet. In this quote, author and professor Herman Daly lays out how we and the natural world are forced to bear the costs while a select few continue to enrich themselves.
“Our decision-making elites may already tacitly understand that growth has become uneconomic. But apparently, they have also figured out how to keep the dwindling extra benefits for themselves, while “sharing” the exploding extra costs with the poor, the future, and other species,” Daly wrote, adding, “elite-owned media, the corporate-funded think tanks, the kept economists of high academia, and the World Bank – not to mention Goldman-Sachs and Wall Street – all sing hymns to growth in harmony with class interest and greed. The public is bamboozled by technical obfuscation, and by the false promise of growthism that one day we will all be rich.”
In the final analysis, the benefits purportedly associated with growth are illusory. The embrace of growth is nearly universal, yet the facts bring us inexorably to the conclusion that our relationship to growth is both untenable and unsustainable.
As succinctly stated in a report published by the journal BioScience, “unlimited growth is an illusion”. Jim Harding, professor of environmental and justice studies elaborates saying “priming the pumps of perpetual economic growth, is part of the grand delusion.” There is no avoiding the fact that our conception of progress based on growth is a fantasy and our dreams about wealth are creating a living nightmare.
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