Steady State Economy
A steady state economy is one in which the balance has been reached; no further growth is necessary or even desirable. Population and consumption are maintained rather than continually increased, and resources are managed rationally rather than exploited and depleted.
The route to a steady state economy is almost as obvious as its benefits. Decreasing demand and fecundity to manageable levels is a major but essential step; it remains to be seen whether mere ‘sustainability’ is actually headed in that direction, or if ‘de-growth’ is a more appropriate alternative. Much of the focus in the transition to a steady state economy is ecological in nature (no pun intended), so the most visible instance of steady state economics has been ecological economics.
The critics of this theory come in two forms. The good old technological optimists cling to the belief that science will save us…somehow. Many advocates of this view have little to no real understanding of current science, let alone the vaguely predicted tomorrow in which all of our resource problems are solved. Those who have a good grasp must surely realize that each ‘solution’ has been increasingly costly, as well as offering increased risk of widespread economic and environmental impact.
The other type of critic maintains that economics is increasingly ‘de-coupled’ from physical factors — basically, economic output can increase while resource use decreases. The transition to an ‘information-based economy’ is often used to prove this argument, though almost exclusively ignoring the fact that consumption of resources continues to rise even as the efficiency of usage increases (and nothing can ever be 100% efficient, or the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics would have to be repealed…).
Really, the only opposition to a steady state economy comes from those who feel that human beings have a right to continue to be greedy, selfish, callous, and/or ignorant. We’re all resistant to being told we can’t have everything that we want, even when we don’t have a complex and widely-accepted economic theory to back us up.
Comments
Comment from admin
Time: December 23, 2010, 4:18 pm
Are you saying that between the fall of the Roman Empire and the ‘rise of democracy’ (very loosely, beginning with the French Revolution and the founding of the United States of America) there was no innovation?
Are you saying that the ‘common people’ have been responsible for most of the innovation since that time?
Are you implying that ‘innovation’ is, in and of itself, always desirable?
And finally, are you saying that the Catholic Church’s considerable influence upon the political structure of (Western) Europe was responsible for an economic situation in which growth was intentionally limited in order to maintain a reasonable and sustainable level of production and trade?
Neither one of those is remotely close to the truth, so I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and ask if perhaps I misunderstood your comment.
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