How much growth does an economy (macro level) need? How much is enough, or, why do whe always need more. Is the minimum amount of growth needed determined by the growth of the population, or are there more dynamics at work. And, how much profitgrowth does a firm need (micro level)? Why is it not enough for firms to make some (or zero) profit. It seems like firms that have a stocknotation on a stockmarket cannot survive unless the make bigger profits every year. In short: How much growth is enough, and: what is the price of too much, or too little growth.

-- Esther van Rijswijk (e.vanrijswijk@ebi.nl), May 29, 2000

Answers

I think that the world is still pretty poor in total, and thus that we need as much growth as we can get--with the proviso that there is no point in impoverishing people alive today in order to produce a brighter future.

Businesses don't need ever-growing profits unless they also want to have high and rising stock prices. They function fine as productive operations without ever-growing profits. (Of course, stagnant profits make shareholders sad.)

-- Bradford DeLong (delong@econ.berkeley.edu), June 19, 2000.

There is nothing inherently good about growth. It is not the objective of mankind, it is a means to get somewhere. There is currently too much emphasis on the means(growth) and too little emphasis on the end(what we want to acheive with growth). The world as a whole should start questioning what growth is suposed to acheive.

-- byron powell (byronpowell@paradise.net.nz), December 28, 2002.