response to TL;DR version in which you said.
Our addiction to "growth" and "more" will eventually cause the downfall. Maybe our best chance to have a "soft landing" (economically speaking) is to embrace "enough" and stop our addiction to accumulating "more."
I say NOPE
that's exactly what we do NOT need to do. Rather we need to do the exact opposite.
We are in somewhat of a similar position to a man wearing nothing but a speedo, and running shoes, who is running across a track full of broken glass...and he stumbles.
He can do one of two things...he can try to break his fall with his hands and roll..and get cut to shreds...
OR.
He can power UP..and run harder...run OUT of the stumble...across the track of glass...and not get cut.
what we need to do YESTERDAY is fire about 90% of the regulators...get rid of a bout 99% of all the rules, laws and regulations that are holding us back.
Set the economy FREE...
Note: according to some estimates the GNP of the US is 1/10th what it would be if not for gubment regulations....that means each and every person in the US would have ten times the money they do now...
Hmm...it sounds like you both are saying the same thing...only you believe the problem lies with the people that make the rules that set the foundation of how we conduct business in a sense...He's saying screw it all...it's all BS. In regards to us wanting more..Unfortunately thanks to capitalism...our "more" is predefined by the "regulators" that you've mentioned. I agree with both of you.
the free market works best when its free.
when it's less free it works less well
why is that so hard to understand?
Bears me...But I definitely get it Everitt.
A truly FREE market economy might work... although I suspect the eventual outcome would be that the world's 10 most ruthless and cunning people would end up running the planet, with the rest of us living as grunts in a labor camp.
As for limitless production without legislation, that would be absolutely true! But who needs that? That was part of my point. Even if we can up production by 900%, I still just need one car, and I already have one car. I also just need onehouse, of about the size I already have. I'm not going to start eating 11 meals a day. I'm still going to have one TV.
You're a sci-fi writer, so I expect you might have read Frederick Pohl's "The Midas Plague?" In a world of limitless production, the highest status in society becomes to "live simply and NOT consume." Interesting read.