ECN 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 30: Thomas Robert Malthus, The Population Bomb, Degrowth
Document Summary
Happiness has been shown to increase with a higher gdp per capita, at least up to a level of. A number of critical arguments have been raised against economic growth. It may be that economic growth improves the quality of life up to a point, after which it doesn"t improve the quality of life, but rather obstructs sustainable living. Historically, sustained growth has reached its limits (and turned to catastrophic decline) when perturbations to the environmental system last long enough to destabilize the bases of a culture. Growth may lead to consumerism by encouraging the creation of what some regard as artificial needs: industries cause consumers to develop new taste, and preferences for growth to occur. Consequently, "wants are created, and consumers have become the servants, instead of the masters, of the economy. " Another example is offshore oil and gas, which has exponentially increasing cost as water depth increases.
