So, can someone tell us about an economic system that does not require unending growth?
For extra irony, this explanation should come from one of those people who say that predicting economics is BS and that it’s too complex for anyone to understand.
FFS y’all, this isn’t the grand revelation you think it is. I figured it out on my own at 19, before the internet existed to tell me what to think. This was about the same time that I figured out that prices will always go up, never down.
So, can someone tell us about an economic system that does not require unending growth?
Literally any local business in a town (if it hasn’t yet been absorbed by large, country-wide companies)
I keep telling people SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESSES in your area, not the big companies
And start questioning any business as soon as they start shit with private equity
Economies of scale let you buy shit for cheap. Much like the device you posted this on. Or did you roll your own device from scratch?
Puh-lease. None of the conglomerate mega corps that have ruined the economy face any real competition. Where is the fucking invisible hand of the free market? Economies of scale? Did you just go through undergrad Econ or something? With no perspective of capitalist offshoring of labor costs, of greasing political wheels to leverage government subsidies that form cartels of major industries? No lens into the corrosive nature of lower cash velocity due to years of stagnating wages with negative net growth via inflation and the dramatic rise of previously illegal stock buyback programs in lieu of actual corporate reinvestment? To say nothing of the 14 years of open-purse strings monetary policy doled out by the Fed as they gave every corp under the sun free money and bailed out the airlines AND the automakers for their folly time and again. Do you want to underscore the capability trap that these zombie corps now face as they’ve jockeyed their cash in finance junkie schemes for a decade and a half rather than produce ANYTHING of actual innovation, while their C Suite jump from ship to ship like hordes of golden-parachuted rats?
The implosion of the US middle class at the hands of these same corporate conglomerates will be a shot heard round the world, when the other shoe finally drops. See how your economies of scale serve then.
It doesn’t require infinite growth?
Shareholders demanding ever increasing profits quarter after quarter is the definition of infinite growth. It’s not enough that a company makes a hundred million dollars in profits quarter after quarter. That number has to keep getting bigger. So yes capitalism as it operates todau does actually require infinite growth.
So yes capitalism as it operates todau does actually require infinite growth.
Companies going bankrupt is also part of capitalism. Are those also infinite growth?
Does it require infinite growth adjusted for inflation? Because as long as you have a state printing money there will be inflation and if your profits don’t keep up with it that means they’re decreasing, not just constant.
Yes, because the shareholders want bigger returns on investment that the idealized ~2% rate of inflation.
Uhh, have you never worked for a corporation before? Every quarter profits must go up.
I have! Even worked at companies that went bankrupt. Sometimes profits go up, sometimes they don’t. Both are part of capitalism.
If it doesn’t, perhaps you can get an answer from billionaires, private equity shareholders, and CEOs of big companies: how much money is “enough” for them?
Oh no, you can’t, because all of them are focused on infinitely squeezing customers and workers to grow revenue.
We just need to get space travel going so we can ruin more planets. Then we only have to worry when the galaxy gets full.
not only does does the billionaire class expect infinite growth, they require infinite accelerating growth
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