There are those who say that an economy based on growth must eventually collapse because endless growth is impossible. There are those who contend that industrial nations already produce too much from an overburdened planet; that we are killing the goose that lays the golden egg by constantly increasing production of goods that consume irreplaceable resources.
Some of these people believe that capitalism or socialism or the conflict between the two must inevitably cause us to grow ourselves to death.
With the improved money there is a tremendous potential for growth. There may be fears that the rate of growth will greatly increase the dangers of running out of necessary natural resources. Fortunately, this is not the case.
The exhaustion of vital natural resources will hurt the economy terribly. The payers would be exposed to considerable abuse. The payers do not want the economy to run out of any resources. Therefore the supply of a resource which is reduced to near potentially dangerous levels will be guarded jealously by the payers. The payers will pay less and less for the use of the resources that are threatened. There will be increased pay for finding substitute materials to use in place of the endangered resource. The most pay will go to those who find and develop renewable resources. Developing techniques for recycling waste materials and using unlimited resources (sunlight, sea water, and the like) also will get high pay because those producers do not suffer any reduction in pay for resource depletion.
There are many ways of designing the goods used by society so that a minimum of resources are used. Goods can be made more long lasting. They can be made easy to recycle. They can be made simpler. We can waste less on the transporting and packaging of goods. Today there is little monetary incentive to design products with conservation in mind. Quick profit is what keeps the wheels of industry turning. The payers are more concerned with long run benefits and will pay accordingly. This procedure will head off shortages before they have a chance to develop. That is not to say there will never be a shortage. It is just that shortages will be forseen, will be planned for, and, as a consequence, will be less likely to occur and be less severe.
Allocation of scarce resources will be based on the following priorities; first necessities, second capital goods, and lastly luxuries. If a resource is very scarce, luxuries will not use it at all.
With a great increase in productive capacity and limited natural resources the proportion of manufacturing jobs will decrease as people are more and more attracted to service jobs. Service jobs use largely human resources. Equipment can take many forms, making substitution of other materials for scarce resources easier. Thus, though the GNP might continue to increase rapidly, the resources used will not have to.
Growth can be controlled rather easily and with little economic pain. This is possible for the payers to do because 1) the coordination of the whole economy is in their hands, 2) they can only reward, 3) they have good feedback about the things that are happening, and 4) the people will trust them.
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