On Thu, 30 Jun 2005 09:38:06 -0500, Duane Bozarth
wrote:

Juergen Hannappel wrote:
...
True. Economic growth worked and enabled a vast array of very good
things. I do not deny that. I just say that it can't go on like this
forever, and the less we plan for the era after the growth the worse
it will hit.

But otoh, in your reply to me you pointed out specifically you have no
clue of what to do nor do you intend to help in creating or drafting a
solution...

Whiners and hand-wringers the world has plenty of already...

The views espoused by Dr. Hannappel and those of his political bent are
driven by the vision of the world's economy as a zero-sum game. i.e., if
one person gains, by definition, another person must lose. This is
certainly true of many economic systems and those of the Eastern block
countries as well as the model which many European countries seem to be
following. These economic systems tend to concentrate decisions and
control in the hands of a few people. This is not necessarily true in a
market driven economy, when one person gains, others gain as well by the
utilization of the wealth created by that person. Is the system perfect?
No, that's because humans are not perfect, but it certainly has proven to
be the most durable and consistent with human nature. There is simply no
way in which an economy can survive at a steady-state for a sustained
period of time, the economy is either going to grow, or it will become
stagnant and wane. The benefit of the free market economy is that
decisions (both good and bad) are spread among a broad, diverse group of
people. The downfall of planned economies is that decisions are
concentrated in the hands of a few (sometimes very few) people. These may
be highly educated, intelligent, and maybe in a few cases, wise people, but
they are still people, subject to error and mistakes. Since the decisions
in such economies are concentrated in a few hands, the results of mistakes
have a much larger impact upon a much greater number of people who have no
power over those decisions. We were recently subjected to a seminar by a
leading "expert" who was the head of a consulting company that was going to
help our company build "green" products. Some of his ideas had merit.
However, one of his comments really struck me. This man was very enamoured
with China and how they do things, pointing to 5000 year old rice paddies
and how the locals had to know exactly how to balance all their inputs and
outputs to keep farming those same places for 5000 years. He then went on
to mention his conversations with one of the leaders who was in charge of a
large housing planning bureau. She told him she was responsible for the
construction of approximately 24 million houses to house those in her
charge. He marvelled at how she had such responsiblity and how she needed
to be sure that the decisions she made took all factors into account. I
sat there wondering why anyone would *want* an economy in which one person
was responsible for the construction of 24 million houses.

As far as the view that "this small planet" is desperately impacted by
the actions of those within it; this seems to be hubris of a high order.
Can one mess up one's local environment? Absolutely, 19'th century London
is a prime example of that, as are some of our own industrial cities at the
beginning of the industrial revolution. Can we "destroy the planet"? That
is highly debateable; consider the amount of energy and pollution that just
*one* volcanic explosion can produce compared to the output of an
industrialized nation. Should we callously waste resources? Of course
not, but to be miserly and live in misery with the idea that this is
somehow a noble cause is equally ridiculous. When you look at the small
amount of land mass that humans actually occupy, we are certainly not
pushing the limits of growth at this time. There are resources both on
land and sea that have not yet been utilized.




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If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough

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