No need to task a random redditor with devising a new economic paradigm, turns out one or two discerning experts spotted the trouble with the whole "the economy can grow forever!" concept. They spotted it pretty early, in fact. Adam Smith literally wrote about this problem.
If the economy is constant then, for example, a 2% productivity increase means you need to decrease total labor hours by roughly 2%. Total wealth is basically zero-sum, so for anyone to become rich someone else must become poor (or several people become slightly poorer).
This does not sound compatible with the way the world is now, at least not for countries like American.
It's a bit more nuanced even in that system - it's zero sum for resource extraction & our ecological impact, but not for knowledge/service/non-extractive forms of economic development & participation. But sure, as far as monetary supply goes you're right. I should've read your comment more carefully - although "money" is arguably not the only thing that constitutes wealth.
Anyway I'm not really a fan of debating any kind of economic theories as it's not like I subscribe to this idea, really, but it's clear that if we want to continue to exist on this planet then SOMETHING has to change. We cannot predicate our economic system on the idea of infinite growth while living on a planet with finite resources.
Truthfully, I think we're going to run this planet into the ground as people only begrudgingly and out of overwhelming necessity accept any encroachment on capitalism. I think the necessary adjustments to our current system will be forced upon us by the planet through large-scale disasters and destabilization, but by the point that people accept the need to change it'll be too late for the changes to actually fix the issues we've created.
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u/Budget-Ambassador203 7h ago
No need to task a random redditor with devising a new economic paradigm, turns out one or two discerning experts spotted the trouble with the whole "the economy can grow forever!" concept. They spotted it pretty early, in fact. Adam Smith literally wrote about this problem.
You should Google "steady state economy".