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Comment by chmaynard | Hacker News Reader

The hidden assumption of many economists is that unfettered economic growth is always a good thing. I'm not arguing against growth. I just think it's important to state our biases and assumptions when we make an argument.

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Well said! Personally, I'd rather see growth in non-polluting technologies, mental health, education, and other aspects of our society. I don't care about overall economic growth and GDP.

Growth is always good for the poor, as it is good for entire poor nations. The problem with modern capitalism though is that the rich benefit from growth to a greater extent compared to the rest. The gap is only widening. Then there's stagnation/recession/depression when it's the opposite: the poor lose more than the rich compared to what they have. So no, growth is a good thing, but it needs some serious fixing too.

Growth is only good for the poor when it's evenly distributed, which it mostly isn't, and when it doesn't have negative impacts on personal health and the environment, which it mostly does.

Most "growth" is really just stripping the house and burning it down to make a fire - while a small number of people get most of the benefit.

Not true, no. We all become more productive over time, then we develop even more productivity tools etc. That's real growth. There's of course the inflated component in it which gets corrected regularly.

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