Originally Posted By: Tempest
Originally Posted By: Shannow
So tempest...is perpetual exponential growth even a remote possibility (regardless of sensibilities) ?
When every 17 or so years, more has been consumed in all of history combined, what's the "market's" plan but to head off a cliff or into a brick wall ?
What is government's plan?
Massive Ponzi schemes for retirement/healthcare, massive debt, mass digitizing of money to keep inflating an economic bubble, cost estimates that double in just 2 years, mass devaluation of the dollar, economic ups and downs that were supposed to be "solved" via the FED, massive subsidy programs to keep economically unviable/wasteful programs/behaviors alive, several decades of becoming more dependent on foreign oil when promising to make us less dependent.....
Does any of that sound "sustainable" to you? Yet people want an organization with that track record (actually far worse) to be planning every aspect of "sustainability"?
"Sustainability" is nothing but a euphemism for
rationing. Rationing outside of a free market is done via central planning. Why are the people in government so magical that they can ration resources more efficiently than can people making up their own minds? What superior insight do they have?
How do they know how much oil is needed by the people of the world? Where should it go? In what quantity? In what quality? PRICES cause a spontaneous order which allocates resources far greater than any commission of "experts". And because prices fluctuate on a daily bases, they are able to send signals to the market far faster than a government "panel" which can take years to come to a "conclusion" that has no basis in economic reality.
Governments forcefully take money from other people. This means that they have little incentive to spend it wisely. This is why subsidizing bad behavior over a long time is possible with governments. Private enterprises/people can't afford this for long or they go broke/starve. Just this one fact (there are others) makes the free market far better at resource allocation and "sustainability" than ANY government body. The free market FORCES individual people to use resources efficiently, where as government spends for the benefit of those that control it.
Since you like to read, please pick up a copy of Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell. This book will teach anyone how economics
really works.
Outstanding post. One particular thing you said could not be more true:
""Sustainability" is nothing but a euphemism for
rationing."
People had better seriously wake up really fast and figure that out. Check out the following threads (they are very long, but well worth the read):
Real growth has, in fact, no limits--"sustainable living" is a fictitious narrative
"Climate Change", fake energy ...ics in disguise
That should keep you busy for awhile.