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Comment by softcactus | Hacker News Reader

Can it continue? Sure. Theoretically we could all be hooked up to computers that slow our perception of reality and allow us to create 2x the digital commodities we could normally in our lifetime. This would technically count as "growth". But I think the actual question is flawed to begin with. Why do we need infinite growth? Do we really need 3% economic growth per year ad infinitum? Why is that our metric for optimization? Why don't choose something else to optimize on like human happiness or fulfillment or freedom?

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Because the world is a ponzii scheme, where we don't pay people for their time but for the going market rate.

If you keep a stable population and pay people based upon life expectations * skill, no one would need a retirement account.

But those with pull want to sit on their hands and do nothing, and throw around large sums of money, hence the ponzi scheme.

Because it is tied to population growth and productivity:

The optimal number of children is 2.1, for offspring to replace parents

[1] https://www.britannica.com/topic/fertility-rate

When there is no population growth, no inflation or economic growth:

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSJis2K6B8Q

You might think that worldwide and US has <2.1%, but technology amplifies productivity, so it is not a 1-1 ratio

[3] https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#:~:text=Popu....

[4] https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/USA/united-states/popu...

This still doesn't really address the why

It’s a good question.

The reason that GDP growth is so important is because it raises the standard of living for those who aren’t yet born. If you accept the premise that lives in the future matter just as much as those today, then the vast majority of human lives are yet to be born and therefore deserve consideration about what to do __today__.

Even small changes in GDP growth (e.g. 1-2% per year) has dramatic compounding effects over a multi decade timeframe.

For a great book on this, I recommend Tyler Cowen’s Stubborn Attachments which discusses the ethics of economic growth: https://press.stripe.com/stubborn-attachments

> it raises the standard of living for those who aren’t yet born

assuming by standard of living we mean quality of life: to accept this one must ignore or rationalize the ways our pursuit of GDP growth is making the planet a less hospitable place for the yet unborn

if instead we mean material expectations, then yes, you're right, but part of the problem is our rapidly growing accustomed to lifestyles that can't be sustained under the present matrix of social and physical technology

I'm not saying GDP shouldn't grow in developing nations. But how and why do we expect GDP to grow infinitely in developed nations? If we all have food, clothing, housing, medicine, leisure, and fulfillment then why would we need GDP to keep going up?

Ask the FIRE people: work/productivity has purpose https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20792026

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