In Praise of Economic Pain

Being an American and living abrosd makes one acutely aware of American consumerisms...sadly one of our biggest exports secondary to fast food chains. I believe that responsibilty needs to be held at an individual level and changes need to be taken personally.

All absolutely true, including the comments preceding mine. Yet what has been our federal government's response to the recession? Send us a check in hopes of stimulating more consumption. And what to the candidates promise? A growing economy. There is much educating to be done.

It appears I can't put an link in here, but I highly recommend reading Herman Daly's paper about a Steady-State Economy (A failed growth economy and a steady-state economy are not the same
thing; they are the very different alternatives we face) at http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications/downloads/Herman_Daly_thinkpiece.pdf

Dave Gardner
Producer/Director
Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity
www.growthbusters.com

Making simple individual changes is not enough because we are far beyond the carrying capacity of the earth we must start reducing human population, which simply requires not creating people who already do not exist. Also, our current paradigm of economic growth must change to sustainability because growth only serves to deplete dwindling resources.

Recessions are going to become more frequent and worse because of increasing demand (overpopulation) and resource loss and waste that will result in ever increasing prices. For example, we have, for all practical purposes, reached peak oil and the resultant price effects have been harsh. Therefore, because agriculture is no longer sustainable without oil, food prices increase as oil prices increase. Also, intensive agriculture demands fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, irrigation, etc. If any of these elements increase in price or reduce in supply then prices of the basics will spiral thus reducing discretionary income for nonsense produced by manufacturers thus leading to recession.

The only viable solution is to reduce human population and replace growth with sustainability.

Yes, cutting back on consumption is good. Cutting back more would be better. Studies show that humans now consume about 120% of the earth's sustainable capacity. More people can not each consume more stuff each year without consequences: wastes building up in the air, sea and land, and increasing shortages of materials.

This is a classic "tragedy of the commons" problem. What seems best for each individual is a disaster for humanity as a whole. Unfortunately such problems are rarely solved by rational action. More usually, the commons is destroyed.

We Americans would do well to immitate Europeans who live quite well using about half of the energy that we use per person, and generating about half of the greenhouse gasses. It would be a big step in the right direction.