Economics In A Full World
A.
- Growth is though to be the solution for all the major economic ills of the modern world
- When an economy's expansion encroaches too much on its surrounding ecosystems, we will begin to sacrifice natural capital that is worth more than the man made capital added by growth
- Uneconomic growth, producing "bads" faster than goods is making us poorer, not richer
- Since Earth finite resources, everything must reach equilibrium
- Overpopulation: push economic growth
- Environmental degradation: Trust in the environmental Kuznets curve, an empirical relation purporting to show that with ongoing growth in GDP, pollution increases but then reaches a maximum and declines
- Most contemporary economics don't believe that the US is heading into un-economic growth
- Humankind must make the transition to a sustainable economy: one that takes heed of the internet biophysical limits of the global ecosystem so that it can continue to operate long into the future
- If we don't make that transition, we may be cursed not just with uneconomic growth but with an ecological catastrophe that would sharply lower living standards
- "Ecological footprint" studies show that the total energy and materials needed to maintain and replace our artifacts has also vastly increased
- Scientists need to develop a "full world" economics to replace our traditional "empty world" economics
- In a sustainable economy, investment would be mainly for replacement and qualitative improvement
- Lower rates are better for the sake of greater durability of goods
- Right to deplete sources is now a scarce asset that can be bought and sold on a free market
- Policy for maintaining natural capital is called the cap-and-trade system
B. The expansion of the economy will interfere with our ecosystem. Our biosphere is finite which means that it has limits and boundaries and the way our economy is now, the US is exploiting our resources and it is negatively affecting the biosphere. With the reduction if these resources, there is no point to growth. Us as a race need to create an economy that can sustain a finite biosphere. The main idea of sustainability is to change our progress of population from growth and more towards development. To have this economy, we need specifics on what needs to be sustained from year to year. Some of these candidates are the GDP, as well as "utility throughout natural and total capital. These candidates need to have an economy to sustain the biosphere's finite resources. They also need to adjust the economy we have now. Some of the adjustments that need to be made are taxes, employment, trade, and GDP growth and happiness. If change does not happen, then our world will just become more polluted.
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C. After reading this article, I was just reminded about how the human race has been ruining our Earth. We are taking our resources and overexploiting them to an extent that we are starting to have second thoughts about our sustainability to the point that we have to change our entire economy to be able to fix it. I was not aware that the growth of our economy contributes to the loss of our natural resources. At first, I had the impression that growth was a benefit to our planet but after reading more into it, the author details how growth can REALLY affect our earth. The growth of our economy can lead to more pollution of the earth and loss of natural resources. I think that the solution of trying to fix our economy is a very good one but at the same time, trying to sustain our biosphere is very hard. If we can find a balance between both sides of the coin, then everybody will become satisfied.
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