economic growth

[sonya123]

this doesn't really fit into any existing thread probably , so I am posting a new one. Not sure if anyone has any thoughts on it either. I have always wondered this, why does there have to be "economic growth" all the time? You see any news articles or youtubes or anything on the economy , and they all make it sound like it would be an absolute disaster if the economy does not grow, and the GDP does not grow. Why is that exactly?

I am looking at it this way. Assume you have a business, and it is going well. You make enough money for you and your employees. You make X dollars of profit a year. WHY on earth do you still need to "grow"? Why not just keep going at the same rate you are now?
Same goes for a country. I don't get this and it personally sounds to me that it's a sort of bad way to run things, if ALL you are always concered about is "growth". If businesses just kept going the way they are and doing ok, why borrow money to grow your business? That;s what they do. Is it just greed? If the population does not grow, there should be no need to grow the economy either. If there are no illegals, the population would not grow.
Is this all just so the politicians can have more power? Is it because of the debt? What?

 

[sonya123]

wow, not a single comment?

 

[DrHenley]

Economic growth is necessary for a debt based monitary system. You could compare it to a Ponzi scheme. It only works while it's expanding.

Get away from debt based economy then you don't necessarily have to keep growing to be stable.

 

[sonya123]

Economic growth is necessary for a debt based monitary system. You could compare it to a Ponzi scheme. It only works while it's expanding.

Get away from debt based economy then you don't necessarily have to keep growing to be stable.

so what exactly happens if there is no economic growth? I am trying to figure this out, seriously

If you don't have the illegals, and the existing population does not have enough kids, your population is going to shrink.
If the population shrinks, how could you possibly still have economic growth? Less people means less stuff needed, plus there is this, half the stuff they sell , is not even stuff anyone needs. If the cost of stuff goes up, people won't buy those things, but will only buy what they need to survive. If restaurants now have either no employees, or more expensive ones, they will charge more and people will stop going there because they can no longer afford it. For example.
I am thinking maybe this is not a bad thing. The overconsumption does need to stop. I am thinking economic shrinkage might not be a bad thing. You would need less resources. We live on a finite planet. Just look at California and their water issues. If you only had maybe 1\10 of the people living there, they might not have all these problems

 

[DrHenley]

so what exactly happens if there is no economic growth? I am trying to figure this out, seriously

The Fed lends fiat money to banks (oversimplification, but it is basically created out of thin air) which then lend the money to companies. The companies make money, and pay back the loans with money created by productivity (the closest thing we have to "real" money).
It is the productivity of the companies that makes the scheme work. That productivity done with the money created out of thin air is how the economy expands.
If there is no expansion of the economy that means the Fed doesn't get paid back in "real" money, and there is inflation.
The Fed basically has to keep priming the pump to keep it going.

 

[zoomzoom]

You brought up population a couple times with basically "if the population isn't going up".
The thing is, US and world population is increasing... rapidly.
The economy has to rise with it. If the economy stays flat, there isn't enough to go around.
Think about the economy and production of things like food and energy. If there's not enough, there will be fighting and wars abound for those resources.
Looking at the world population graph below, the population has doubled since we were born. If things didn't grow, what are the extra 4 billion people going to do for a living?

 

[SLADE]

I would think investors want to make money on their investment.

 

[Supervisor42]

this doesn't really fit into any existing thread probably , so I am posting a new one. Not sure if anyone has any thoughts on it either. I have always wondered this, why does there have to be "economic growth" all the time? You see any news articles or youtubes or anything on the economy , and they all make it sound like it would be an absolute disaster if the economy does not grow, and the GDP does not grow. Why is that exactly?

I am looking at it this way. Assume you have a business, and it is going well. You make enough money for you and your employees. You make X dollars of profit a year. WHY on earth do you still need to "grow"? Why not just keep going at the same rate you are now?
Same goes for a country. I don't get this and it personally sounds to me that it's a sort of bad way to run things, if ALL you are always concered about is "growth". If businesses just kept going the way they are and doing ok, why borrow money to grow your business? That;s what they do. Is it just greed? If the population does not grow, there should be no need to grow the economy either. If there are no illegals, the population would not grow.
Is this all just so the politicians can have more power? Is it because of the debt? What?

Great thread!
I find it slightly ironic that a thread called: 'Economic Growth', is in the forum titled: 'Economic Collapse'.
And it is fun to see the people that want to drag us down to their level, screaming.
...We are sorry, but your economic collapse has been cancelled!
The economy will grow.