We are now in the ‘end time’ of a 300-year Capitalist era of uninterrupted growth.
Growth is the lynchpin of Capitalist economics – “you have to grow”.
Yet there are only about as many people living in the West today, in the First World, as there ever will be and the number of newborn babies – the original reason or driver for economic growth – is dwindling and with that, the biggest bubble of them all, the population bubble, is bursting.
Growth is inherent to the system, unconsciously embedded in it, because, for the last three hundred years, the First World population has been growing and that growth was driving Capitalsm: growth is … “the way it is.”
For growth read, 'increased annual profits for investors'!
I don’t think even Adam Smith looked further than the New World for growth.
His Hidden Hand? A burgeoning, never-ending stream of new-born customers every year until growth morphed into the ‘correct’ recipe for success: a demand: If you were not growing there was something wrong with the way you did business, all those new feet to make shoes for? Can’t fail!
Which is the reason you see all those ‘enemies’, those Arabs wearing Nike sneakers - because that’s where populations are still growing and Nike, like all Capitalist concerns, is locked into the growth paradigm (“the System”) because of upward shareholder pressure (which quite deliberately stays unaware of the fact that the growth driver is gone), so Nike the Capitalist sells shoes to ‘the enemy’ because the system – Capitalism – says he still has to grow profits.
I repeat this often because It is important to completely understand that growth in Capitalism began, not as a necessity but as a given: Capital growth originated with and paralleled the growth of the population in which it operated – Capitalism itself ‘simply’ grew along with the driving force of increasing numbers.
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