Monday, August 7, 2017

Economists' Myopia

In my opinion, economist of all feathers are far too close to the ground and can't get to the 30,000 feet view to see and understand the world they live in. Economy is much more than factory production, jobs, inflation or growth.

It has to also be about belief in science, smart healthcare, sustainability and environment. Without these essential yardsticks, humanity is headed towards annihilation.

Yesterday, I discovered two photographs taken at a 125 year interval. They depicted the same viewpoint, at the same time of the year, showing how the Argentière Glacier, near Chamonix and not far from my hometown, had shrunk is little more than a century. Absolutely spooky!

Now if you go back to 1890, when the first picture was taken, there were “only” 1.5 billion humans on the planet. Today, we're well above 7.5 billion; a 600% increase.
  •  Conclusion #1: Too many humans have destroyed the planet to a point of no return. 
  • Conclusion #2: Quantitative Growth is misguided. We count on ever more people to buy more stuff and fuel growth. This isn't sustainable. We should have our minds set on qualitative growth instead. Conclusion #3: Bringing healthcare to the world only works if we bring education and contraception at the same time. We should adopt this approach now to delay the demise of our planet. 
  • Conclusion #4: In spite of my very good ideas that no one will listen to, we're now officially all screwed.

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