Economists call for growth as a remedy to the recession. With the current economic recession winding all-too-slowly down, I have heard some economic experts telling the media that we need “more growth, more and faster growth”. How long does anyone think we can continue to fix our economic problems by “developing” (or is it “blighting”) more land and burning up more resources? Isn’t that just pushing down on the gas pedal as our car heads straight towards a cement wall? Where do the media find these so-called experts? How can the “growth mantra” be expected to continue indefinitely in a finite world? What proportion of the population are smart enough to understand this and similar issues, and how can it be increased? In the United States, we can’t keep our current infrastructure in good repair. How do we expect to take care of even more after we build it?
I will write another email to my government representatives on this. Uncontrolled and unthinking growth is self-destruction, in the final tally. I want my grandchildren to have as good a life as possible, though I currently believe it will be no better than I have today, and possibly much worse. I encourage you the reader to contact your representatives and push them to think long-term and recognize that most of what we consider changing now, such as reducing carbon emissions, does little in the face of the global population explosion. The correction to that, and the only one that seems to have the potential to move us towards sustainability, is for people to have smaller families. I can’t think of anything else with any probability of success. I also think we all want to deal with overpopulation ourselves as opposed to letting Mother Nature deal with the problem for us.
The situation is not hopeless. I have written before about the factors that have been proven to reduce family size: education, birth control, and better economic situations. If we put a small part of the resources and funding we put into wars and war-like activities into those three factors, especially in the developing world, I think we could make a big positive difference in our descendants’ lives. Unfortunately our mostly-unregulated form of capitalism puts extremely powerful interests behind short term measures and often-destructive endeavors that benefit them, but harm all of us in the long run. We have a chance if we *all* get involved and make our voices heard. We created government to protect us, and if we don’t stop the subversion of our government for corporate profits we will all suffer, and our descendants will suffer far more. Please write your congresspeople.
As always, I welcome your comments. — Tim
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