Banking

Ever wonder why the business world seems obsessed with growth? Open up the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Economist, or the business section of your local paper. Growth, increasing profits, and expanding markets – this is the objective. When businesses don’t grow at expected rates, stock prices plummet and CEO’s get canned.

From microeconomic perspective, the point of view of the individual, our society offers countless reasons to work for growth. A salesman who sells more makes more money in commissions. A mid-level manager drives his employees to perform at a higher level so that one day she can be promoted to corporate. A CEO might point to his legal duty to increase the company’s equity for stockholders. A self-employed contractor knows that without building more homes, he cannot afford to send his daughter to private school.

At just about every level, we are a society oriented toward infinite growth.

An unending growth economy is impossible in a finite world. An always-growing economy requires an ever increasing supply of expendable resources. Thanks to the laws of physics, we have little hope of creating an infinite world, so we best stick with creating a sustainable economy.

Over the coming weeks, I will examine various parts of our economic system and growth-oriented society. Once we’ve had a chance to explore our current system, we will be in a better place to forge a new, sustainable, economic paradigm.