Why “an end to growth”?

3 explanations:

1. Physics

2. History

3. Economics

“We have been far too uncritical

in our celebration of everything

global and cosmopolitan, and in

our corresponding denigration of

everything national and local... ”

(Herman Daly, Beyond Growth,

p.143)

“What happens if a satiated society becomes once again stabilized, un-

mobile?... though there is no reason to suppose that all possible technical

innovations will one day be exhausted, there is reason to suppose that

beyond a certain point further technical innovations may cease to have any

significant further impact on social structure and society generally, on the

analogy of a man who, beyond a certain point of wealth, can no longer in

any way alter his life-style in response to further enrichment… much of our

argument did hinge on the implications of continuing commitment to global

economic growth, and hence to innovation and occupational change; it also

pre-supposed the persistence of a society based on the promise of affluence

and on generalized Danegeld. These assumptions, though valid now,

cannot be expected to remain so indefinitely... Our culturally homogeneous,

mobile and, in its middle strata, fairly unstructured society may well not last

forever, even if we disregard the possibility of cataclysms; and when this

kind of society no longer prevails, then what we have presented as the social

bases of nationalism will be profoundly modified...”

“the age of wealth-saturation for mankind at large still seems fairly distant,

and so the issue does not affect us too urgently at present… that is not

something which will be visible in our lifetimes.” (Ernest Gellner, Nations

and Nationalism, 1983:113)

Industrial

Growth

Economy

Ascriptive

Stations

Social

Mobility

King

Lords

Priests (clerisy)

The People

Culture

God

scripture

Democracy

Mass education

Language

Myth /

history

Agrarian

Distribution

Economy

The State

Government

legitimacy

stability

anarchy

?

equality

nobility

Industrial

Growth

Economy

Ascriptive

Stations

Social

Mobility

King (or president)

Lords

Priests

Culture

God

scripture

Democracy

Mass education

Language

Myth /

history

Agrarian

Distribution

Economy

The State

Government

legitimacy

superstition

The Nation

nobility

equality

stability

Industrial

Growth

Economy

Ascriptive

Stations

Social

Mobility

King

Ruling class

Serving class

Mass Culture

God

Democracy

Mass education

Language

Myth /

history

Futuristic

Steady-State

Economy

The State

Government

equality

Arbitrary

racial

hierarchy

High culture

Education