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Who Killed Economic Growth?

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    You've heard them,
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    politicians, economists, executives - all saying the same thing:
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    The economy is recovering!
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    Recovering to what?
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    To its normal state of constant growth.
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    In the next five minutes we're going to see why they're wrong,
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    why economic growth is effectively over,
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    and what that means for the economy, for you
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    and for your family.
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    It started centuries ago. There had been economic expansion before but
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    it was slow and cyclical.
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    Empires rose and fell.
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    But with the industrial revolution
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    rapid growth became normal.
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    Economists tell us this was because of innovation,
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    division of labor and increased trade,
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    but it was mostly a result of cheap energy.
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    It takes energy to do things and with cheap coal and oil people could
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    suddenly do more than ever. First coal then oil sped up trade by fueling
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    our prized inventions:
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    Railroads,
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    automobiles and airplanes.
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    Economists
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    assumed that growth could go on forever.
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    It was an absurd notion.
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    Nobody stopped to think that all this industrial growth was happening on a
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    small planet with only so much oil and soil,
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    only so many forests and fish.
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    We were growing on borrowed time
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    and we all got hooked on growth.
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    Rising GDP numbers became our main measure of success.
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    More, bigger and faster meant better.
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    The first warning signs came in the 1970s.
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    A team of scientists programmed a computer with data about population
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    growth, rising consumption
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    and resource depletion.
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    Their conclusion:
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    There are limits to growth.
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    Mainstream economists
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    attacked those findings using nasty rhetorical tricks, but forty years later
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    the same conclusion holds.
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    In fact the industrial economies of the world's wealthiest nations
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    started stagnating years ago as resources began to run out. Governments,
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    businesses, and households went into hock up to their eyeballs
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    gorging on easy credit. The financial system created ever more
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    complex securities and derivatives schemes to soak up all of that debt
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    and make perpetually rising imaginary profits on imaginary assets.
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    But money and debt depend on natural resources piling up debt year after year
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    doubling it then doubling it again meant piling up claims on resources that were
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    shrinking as we depleted them.
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    It was a pyramid scheme,
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    the mother of all bubbles
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    and in 2008
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    it burst.
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    Governments and central banks tried to reinflate the bubble with bailouts and
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    stimulus packages funded by public debt.
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    But there are practical limits to debt
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    and we're hitting them.
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    There are practical limits to energy sources
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    and we're hitting them.
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    There are real limits to the planet's ability to absorb our wastes
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    and industrial accidents
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    and we've hit those too.
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    We're being told that the economy is recovering
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    but take away new debt the government has taken on since 2008 to
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    stimulate the economy
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    and there's been no economic growth.
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    There is no recovery
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    it's all being done with more debt.
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    We've already mortgaged our grandchildren's future
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    but to keep the economy from relapsing we'll need to borrow even more.
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    The game is up.
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    We've reach the end of economic growth as we've known it.
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    They're lying to you.
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    But they can't help it
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    We're all addicted to growth.
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    We all want better jobs and higher returns on investments
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    but we live on a finite planet
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    The end of growth is not the fault of any one politician or political party
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    but some people benefited from growth more than others.
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    We can live without economic growth but we will have to start doing a few things
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    differently.
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    We have to measure and aim for improvements in life that don't require
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    increasing our consumption of fossil fuels and other depleting resources
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    or piling on more debt.
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    Freedom. Being with the people we love.
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    Good health and the time to enjoy it.
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    A secure happy community.
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    We have to work together to build local economies where we can live and prosper.
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    But, and this is a big but...
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    Without cheap fossil fuels and without borrowing from the future.
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    The longer we put this off
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    the harder it will be.
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    Economic growth. It's over.
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    LET'S MOVE ON.
Title:
Who Killed Economic Growth?
Description:

**PLEASE SHARE**
Excerpted from: http://www.endofgrowth.com
Richard Heinberg propose a startling diagnosis: humanity has reached a fundamental turning point in its economic history. The expansionary trajectory of industrial civilization is colliding with non-negotiable natural limits.

** Please understand that we fit all we could into a five minute video. Yes, there are many issues and nuances left out. You'll find most addressed in the book from which this material was excerpted: http://www.endofgrowth.com***

"Why have mainstream economists ignored environmental limits for so long? If Heinberg is right, they will have much explaining to do." -- LESTER BROWN, Founder Earth Policy Institute

"Heinberg shows how peak oil, peak water, peak food, etc. lead not only to the end of growth, but to the beginning of a new era of progress without growth." -- HERMAN E. DALY, Professor Emeritus, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

"By the time you finish Heinberg's book, you will have 2 conclusions: This is the end of economic growth and it is our problem, not our childrens'. It's time to get ready. This book is the place to start." --PAUL GILDING -- Former head of Greenpeace International

"Richard has rung the bell on the limits to growth. Our shift from quantity of consumption to quality of life is the great challenge of our generation. Frightening...but ultimately freeing." --JOHN FULLERTON - President and Founder, Capital Institute

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Video Language:
English
Duration:
06:31
Amara Bot added a translation

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