The insanity of endless growth

Almost all governments, business, media and both the political ‘left’ and ‘right’ are busy extolling endless growth on a planet which is finite. Clearly endless economic growth is impossible, and its pursuit unsustainable and unethical and such destructive pursuit of the impossible is insane. Humanity is totally dependent on the biosphere and it is degrading. Hence society needs to realize that we are way past sustainable ecological limits. 

• The most drastic effects of the rise of economic growth are the impoverishing of democracy, the loss of liberty, and the abandonment of equality. We must subject the economy to the ideals of democracy, liberty, equality, and unity. The drivers of free-market system are causing interrelated problems and if we are to turn our nation from this path of folly, we must first abandon the faulty assumptions that drive our thinking. The four pillars of capitalism - endless economic growth, ever-increasing productivity, accelerating technological advances, and self-interest must be abandoned. Economic insanity challenges people to stop looking for answers within the system and look instead to changing the system.
• The reality is that endless economic growth on a finite planet is unsustainable, especially if society has exceeded ecological limits. There are ‘limits of growth’; and the ‘endless growth mantra’ within society is unsustainable. The three main drivers of ‘unsustainability’ are overpopulation, over consumption and the growth economy. 
• The ‘decoupling’ strategy by switching over to renewable sources of energy etc has its merits and limits, and at best a partial solution to the problem. The key social problem is denial of our predicament along with the contribution of anthropocentric modernism as a worldview that aids and abets that denial. At best attempts at decoupling slow down the rate at which things get worse. Talk of 100% decoupling is likely to be merely a wishful thinking.
• Human population growth and the concomitant increase in the consumption of resources would exceed planetary limits around the middle of the 21st century, causing societal collapse. The Global Ecological Footprint now stands at 1.6 Earths. The Living Planet Index has declined by 58% between 1970 and 2012.  The species extinction rate is at least 1000 times normal. At least 60% of ecosystem services are degrading or being used unsustainably. We are bankrupting nature and consuming the past, present and future of our biosphere.
• Economic growth is seen as the panacea for almost all societal ills. Commitment to growth is being promoted in the guise of free trade, competitiveness, productivity – or even as sustainable development which is an oxymoron. Sustainable development requires a GDP growth rate of 5%, doubling output every 14 years. Economic growth can't be the cure for poverty, unemployment, debt repayment, inflation, population explosion, and so on.
• The idea of benefits of growth would trickle down and alleviate global poverty has failed. The verb ‘to grow’ has become twisted; its original meaning is to spring up and develop to maturity, a steady state. To grow beyond a certain point is disastrous. It is possible to develop scenario where full employment prevails, poverty eliminated, people have more leisure, and greenhouse gases drastically reduced, with low or no economic growth. It is a mistake to assume that economic growth is a necessity for full employment.
• Once we have exceeded ecological limits, growth will make us worse off with uneconomic growth. Products scarcity leads to advocacy of even more growth. This becomes a death spiral. Healing our world requires accepting the reality that the economy cannot grow forever. 
• A dismissal of ecological limits and the rapidly worsening environmental crisis indicates many are still in denial of the insanity and unsustainability of endless economic growth. Many things change and solutions become easier if we change our worldview and ethics. Society needs to return to ecocentrism and adopt an Earth ethic and undertake the work of repairing the Earth and changing to a worldview of ecocentrism to step on the path to a sustainable future.

We have been locked into an insane growth fantasy for two centuries, but the past does not mandate the future. It is time now to grow up. We need to acknowledge the scale of the problem, abandon denial, and move towards a major shift in worldview. This is a big task, but also an exciting, positive challenge – one nobody should deny.

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Four Earths would be needed if everyone lived like Americans.

All progress is precarious, and the solution of one problem 
brings us face to face with another problem ... Martin Luther King, Jr.

Growth mantra has simply made rich much richer while poor remained poor. The disparity between rich and poor has widened like never before. This trend can't go on forever. In order to retain our humanity in the face of ecological limits, we would have to confront inequality head on. If wealth were divided equally among the all the people in the world, the per capita material affluence would drop significantly. Global society has already entered the phase where the capacity to grow, to generate real new wealth, is declining. When growth stops, tensions mount. Only the tyrannical state, with its monopoly on violence, its enormous bureaucracies, its tentacles reaching into every facet of life, will have the power to save us from the stupidity called the freedom to grow forever. 

GST deficit slowly reducing?

 

EENADU Telugu Nov 24, 2017

• GST after disrupting economy for continuously for 5 months limping towards zero deficit.
• In July 2017 it was utter choas, August ended with deficit of 29% (Rs.12,210 crores) improved in September to 24% (Rs.10,343 crores) and further improved during October 2017 to 17.6% (Rs.7,559 crores). Quarterly (Aug-Oct 2017) collection stood at Rs. 98,930 crores against target of Rs.129,042 crores with 23% deficit of Rs.30,111 crores.
• This would enlarge fiscal deficit from 3.2% of GDP to 3.5%. Already GDP growth rate took severe beating nose diving to 4 year low of 5.7% which otherwise should have been 9.1%.
• Oil prices are shooting up with current price at its 4-year high of $63.4 per barrel. The rising prices will further impact our fiscal deficit and inflation.
• The resilient Indian economy withstood impact of harebrained demonetisation and even before it recovered fully, Modi unleashed badly designed GST only to demonstrate that he is bold and his intentions of continuing financial reforms but causality is the nation and its people. Boldness is different from recklessness, he failed to grasp.
• Now, with sentiment completely destroyed, investments at standstill, informal sector decimated, agrarian sector in deep distress, construction paralyzed, empty coffers, wide ranging joblessness, dwindling exports, uncontrolled imports, rising oil prices and so on are having its adverse effects on economy, simultaneously. How long consumption driven economy will survive on a single service sector? There is no one who could pop us up from our self inflicted distressed economy.
• Any economist will tell you that the only way to boost a sagging economy is by increasing government spending on infrastructure thus creating large scale construction jobs and increasing consumption, funding it by widening fiscal space by increasing fiscal deficit even at the risk of higher inflation. Modi is just not doing that and result in near future is anybody's guess.
• Tax terrorism in the form incessant raids by taxmen and trying to impose service tax on software exports with retrospective effect from 2012 will further ruin any chances of economic recovery.
• While GST deficit might become zero by the end this financial year, after 3 quarters, it has left us in deep distress, gravely wounded and uncertain future.
• Who is responsible for this all round distress? ... The answer is Modi and his quack advised Modinomics.

Spending on infrastructure projects could be lower as sluggish GST growth have upset the government’s budget calculations and GDP growth rate is to take a further hit. The revenue shortfall could be over Rs. 80,000 crores if the current trend continues until the end of the year and will force a re-think in government spending. GST's ambiguous rules, onerous return filing system and glitches with its IT back-end have made doing business far more complicated for many companies. Frequent changes in tax rates launch have heightened business uncertainty. Hurried GST roll out had resulted in a lot of chaos and pandemonium. PSU's reduced dividend, RBI's less than half dividend all have impacted government revenues contrary to budget projection of 17% growth in tax collections. Above all, psu banks recapitalisation and rising oil prices needs to be supported from the budget. So where are we heading for?