Comments on: One Economics http://crookedtimber.org/2007/11/13/one-economics/ Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made Sun, 27 May 2012 06:52:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: noen http://crookedtimber.org/2007/11/13/one-economics/comment-page-1/#comment-218303 noen Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:16:01 +0000 http://crookedtimber.org/2007/11/13/one-economics/#comment-218303 I read Crooked Timber but I rarely comment. I want to raise some concerns of mine and this seems like a good opportunity. <i>identifying the institutions that are compatible with sustained growth calls for a different methodology than Rodrik, and everyone else, uses. Yet the first point—that development can be sustained under different institutional frameworks as long as they manage conflicts, coordinate, and regulate—is tantalizing and calls for systematic attention.</i> Why would we want sustained growth? Growth is unsustainable. This is a finite world with limited space and limited resources. We have a choice, either we reduce our population or nature will do it for us. Either we reduce our consumption of natural resources or it will be done for us. There are no alternatives. I'm highly pessimistic that solutions will be found much less followed. I think that very powerful forces simply don't care and are perfectly willing to run this world into the ground and allow our environment and indeed our entire climate to crash. They think they'll emerge unscathed. Because crash it will. What are the economics of yeast that have run out of food and have no more room in which to grow? I read Crooked Timber but I rarely comment. I want to raise some concerns of mine and this seems like a good opportunity.

identifying the institutions that are compatible with sustained growth calls for a different methodology than Rodrik, and everyone else, uses. Yet the first point—that development can be sustained under different institutional frameworks as long as they manage conflicts, coordinate, and regulate—is tantalizing and calls for systematic attention.

Why would we want sustained growth? Growth is unsustainable. This is a finite world with limited space and limited resources. We have a choice, either we reduce our population or nature will do it for us. Either we reduce our consumption of natural resources or it will be done for us. There are no alternatives.

I’m highly pessimistic that solutions will be found much less followed. I think that very powerful forces simply don’t care and are perfectly willing to run this world into the ground and allow our environment and indeed our entire climate to crash. They think they’ll emerge unscathed.

Because crash it will. What are the economics of yeast that have run out of food and have no more room in which to grow?

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