Is This Economic Growth Worth It?
With the ebb and flow of our global economy, we see people expressing
their concern about the future of the world, as we know it. Looking
at all the stress people go through during the economic boom and
subsequent suffering during the recession, it is natural for people to
wonder, “Is this economic growth really worth it?”
The reality is there is no end to human desire; it only increases as our
standard of living rises. A person with one television desires another;
eventually those two televisions are not big enough, and so they replace
them with two big-screens. Later, they may upgrade to high-definition.
A person having one cell phone naturally wishes to have one for each
family member. These are reasonable desires, considering our modern
lifestyles. After all, as technology races ahead of demand, the products
become increasingly affordable.
These desires are natural and inevitable as families, incomes, and
even expectations grow. With an economy built on satisfying these
desires, we have very little control over its growth. As technology
brings advanced products to market, our desire to own them naturally
increases. In fact, we work even harder to acquire them.
The other interesting aspect of human technological evolution is that
growth is not linear. Sometimes it is very slow and other times it is
visibly fast. When it is slow, we believe the world is going to be like this
forever. Slow evolution places stress and frustration on us all. Despite
working hard, it can take generations for families to rise out of poverty.
Even education is not within their reach, nor was it for their ancestors.
They do not believe they are evolving, though they are, in fact, part of
the evolution.
-By RS Amblee
Author of "The Art of Looking into the Future: The Five Principles of Technological Evolution"
Amazon Link:
http://www.amazon.com/Art-Looking-into-Future-Technological/dp/0983157405/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_t_1
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