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Agrarian society was only practical because a wealth of unused resources was available to each individual. Since then, we have barely managed to postpone an impending Malthusian catastrophe by optimizing the crap out of high-tech agriculture. The world isn't growing, and a population of seven billion is worse off in most ways a than a population of one billion would be.

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I think our economic system more or less makes sense. By requiring a constant trend of growth, we can spur investment and make people more inclined to take on risk, which in general serves us better than not. As I mentioned in [0] (linked above), if we can get the fertility rate back up for another 100 years in order to drive good growth, I believe we will be able to eliminate most forms of scarcity. From there, we will have more flexibility.

For now, in a world of scarcity and competition, if we continue to perish without replacement, we are risking everything.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11076964

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