227: Economists don’t know what they’re talking about on growth
A few words on growth and how people misunderstand it, especially economists.
I start by talking about my window garden cherry tomato plants and how the inability of the insects eating them to regulate their growth and up destroying the plants and thereby their own population.
Can we outdo bugs?
I’m not sure. An educated friend showed surprise to me that his having four or five kids is one of the biggest effects he could have on the environment. How can we not get this? People don’t seem to think in this area but instead parrot knee-jerk irrelevancies that distract from that if we don’t control our population, nature will for us, which will be painful on a scale we’ve never faced.
We can replace the cultural value of growth with enjoying what you have. When I learned to enjoy what I have more, growth started looking more like craving. I haven’t seen craving make for a great life.