A new video from the World Economic Forum (WEF) puts forward the theory that economic growth must be stopped. That we cannot “save the planet” if we allow unbridled growth free rein.
This is a slick, well-done production that relies on manipulated facts, half-truths and outright fabrications to advance the idea that human ingenuity has finite limits. They use the lunacy of the exponential doubling of a magic gold coin to say that the economy is doing the same thing.
Is the global economy growing? Absolutely. Is it growing at an exponential rate? No proof is given to this idea that is fundamental to the presentation. In fact, no examples of this concept of infinite growth are given at all.
What is done is similar to what was done decades ago when we were told that the world was running out of fossil fuels. We were told that “peak oil” had arrived and passed us. By the year 1965 or so, the world would be looking at declining extraction of oil. How did that turn out?
Infinite growth is another such idea. It does not exist and is unlikely to exist in the future. On the other hand, continuing growth is something that humans working within a capitalistic system can accomplish. New and better products that create more value are a very real outcome.
However, WEF believes that such growth must be stopped for the betterment of humanity. While the WEF admits that we are not in imminent danger of running out of resources due to “infinite growth,” they bring out the bogeyman of climate change among other things to say that we are destroying the planet. So, we must “save the planet” for humanity.
The WEF solution:
Some economists think the solution is to reengineer our economies completely. They make the case that what we should really be doing is weaning ourselves from the addiction to growth and shifting to a post-growth economy.
This is a clever stratagem here. They convert growth in economic terms from a good and beneficial thing for mankind to something to be avoided. They do this by the use of the word addiction. All the connotations of the word addiction are bad.
The WEF goes on to tell us that we must identify what we “really need.” Of course, the WEF will be there to help us make that determination. They include “things like renewable energy, healthcare, and public transportation.”
This sounds an awful lot like communism. The old Soviet Union was good at producing five-year plans to advance society to the promised utopia. How did that work out?
In this instance, the WEF sidesteps the issue of who would decide what is good and necessary and what should be eliminated by saying that we should enlist the help of AI systems. Of course, such systems would be programmed by them.
This is insane. The Davos crowd is thinking only of themselves and where they would reside in a world controlled by their AI systems. How is this plan working out for them right now? Europe is about to see a sledgehammer taken its economy because of the machinations of the Davos crowd. And this is happening as the winter approaches. It appears from this side of the Atlantic that the people in Europe are less than happy. How many people will starve and/or freeze to death?