Yes, of course there are people who prioritize lifestyle over chasing money. No one will debate that. But if those people's retirement plans are dependent on a 401k or drawing payments from a pension fund and not just cash savings, then they are amongst the growth-obsessed shareholders, whether they realize it or not.
I agree with this but I think gkoberger's post was maybe edited?
I believe the post I originally responded to was worded in a way that implied everyone individually was purposefully embracing a growth mindset (or I misunderstood).
There's certainly no way to escape that all retirement systems in the US are based on growth. Even social security seems to rely on making more from interest than from taxes.
I think 99.9% of people have good intentions. But so much of everything we do depends on growth without us even realizing it.
probably not the best example, today this is much worse vs. during the early days of the Industrial Revolution
The one key missing ingredient for this is competition. Without competition there is just a monopoly/cartel, leading to rent seeking behavior and products/services with too low quality and too high prices.