Hacker News Reader

Comment by CuriouslyC | Hacker News Reader

Prosperity is about having an abundance of the things in life that really matter. That only requires economic growth when there aren't enough of those things to go around. Right now, there are enough of those things to go around, and way more, if all the people doing stupid useless shit like working in advertising became farmers and makers. Our society is being held hostage by plutocrats.

View on HN

This is a fantasy that sounds good in practice, but sucks in reality.

You’re dying of incurable cancer. Do you have enough or do you want more economic growth so we can try and cure it?

If you're willing to die from stepping on a nail, then ok. I'm not.

Death will always be a thing. I'm not selfish enough to want to enslave the planet to buy me a few more years.

Ok, but don’t force your views on others. If you want to die because a tooth is infected, then go for it. I’ll trade “enslaving the planet a bit” for another 50 decades of life, thank you very much.

You have the example of the United States which has economic growth but has recently seen its average life expectancy fall. Many other countries have less GPD per capita but higher average life expectancy. What do you think of this?

Life expectancy is a crappy measure of healthcare, too many confounding factors.

And let’s ignore the US. For other countries with high life expectancy, how do you think they pay for it? By economic growth. Norway drills and sells a ton of oil.

Don’t kid yourself. People clicking on ads and buying new iPhones is the type of economic activities that pays for things like healthcare, welfare for the poor, etc.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com