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It’s definitely a sobering thought exercise.

The need for growth was important because Roman growth led to “civilizing” creative activity and exchange. Growth stopped and the activity stopped. The institutions of government/power couldn’t adapt.

There’s alot of parallels. How much economic growth now is really squeezing more blood from the rock?

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I'm not sure that's the lesson, based on this post, it sounds like the institutions were vital to the prosperity more than the growth. In a sense, growth is prosperity, but both were the result of institutions, and I'm not sure that growth was necessary for the maintenance of the institutions. I think the big takeaway is that people thought of the institutions are sort of an immutable fact of the world, when in reality, they were very break-able. Though that is also a sobering thought exercise as well.

On the contrary, we have an embarrassment of riches along with severe misallocation of resources. We could even be richer than our forebearers ever dreamed of.

Hahaha, I’ve been slipping “embarrassment of riches” into conversations ever since I first saw it on my favorite band’s forum. The boys would definitely approve

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