“Today, of course, we live in a different world: we in the UK have enjoyed three centuries of growth and, over the past few decades, unprecedented peace. This has recalibrated our conception of what it means to live in a “compassionate society”…” Matthew Syed in the “Sunday Times”.
So Matthew has fallen for the “growth is always good” imperative. Shame. And wrong. Fifty years ago when I was studying Economics one of the set books was “The Costs of Economic Growth” by E.J. Mishan. He articulated a conviction that the growth in real income was accompanied by a simultaneous decline in human welfare. It was a persuasive and systematic demolition of the religion of growth. And as we look at the growing social and environmental problems of today – especially at environmental degradation – we cannot ignore the fact that untrammelled growth is killing us.
The Industrial Revolution is a handy metaphor as well as a warning from history. The metaphor is that “progress” generally takes place alongside decline. The calibrations are different. In the nineteenth century Gross Domestic Product increased but the society it created, persuasively described by Disraeli as “Two Nations”, was grotesquely unequal. “Trickle down” was nonsense then, and still is.
The “growth is good” mantra is reminiscent of Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is good”. Greed creates inequality and that doesn’t deliver a “compassionate society”. In Britain is has created a North/South divide that places us, without London, as Europe’s poorest country!
The most popular political model of modern times is called “neoliberal” and within that growth is the largely unchallenged driver. There are challenges, think Greenpeace or Greta Thunberg, but whilst governments pay lip service to “Net Zero” they still worship Growth which is incompatible with it.
I will be accused by some (again!) of being a “sourpuss” ! Here I wouid reference the Music Hall song:
“It’s the same the whole world over,
It’s the poor what gets the blame,
It’s the rich what gets the pleasure,
Isn’t it a blooming shame?”
Have you noticed how there is a perfect correlation between scepticism about (say) “Net Zero’ and Climate Change and wealth. Those protesting about our collective insanity of environmental destruction are poor but honest. Those in denial are the rich who revel in the personal wealth that growth has given them.
Paddy’s Blogs in a crazy world 
Growth economic or social is a never-ending avaricious machine that requires constant feeding. If any country has 2-3% population growth through migration or other means then it needs the same percentage of economic growth to create the resources to cope with it. If that fails then the living standards of everyone except the wealthy decline.
As you correctly write the environmental destruction caused by ever-increasing consumption, overbuilding, and mass tourism are seriously degrading the planet.
The problem of course is how do you restrict greed. Greed is the natural human response for most people. They are never satisfied either emotionally or financially. They believe more is always preferable to less. When in fact some of us realise the reverse of that is true.
I blame mass advertising for uncontrolled growth. It plants seeds of impression in the minds of the ”must-haves’. It’s everywhere you cannot escape it unless you live in a cave or halfway up a mountainside. You can’t watch Sports without avoiding it or traveling on a train. We are constantly bombarded in our daily lives, turning mankind into consumer zombies.
Who benefits from unfettered growth? The owners of capital of course. Rarely does that reach those most in need. Mankind is doomed to inequality the destruction of the earth and interminable conflict. Historically it’s been ever thus. Except now human existence is on the line.
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