The Real Cancer Is Historical and Economic Ignorance
29th July 2016
Don Boudreaux, a Real Economist, speaks truth to stupid.
Here’s a comment, in full, from one “Bob” on this Marginal Revolution post by Tyler Cowen on Tyler’s receipt of Joel Mokyr’s new book, A Culture of Growth:
Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.
Bob likely believes that, with this single pointed sentence, he makes a profound point – a point that causes all but the most philistine of readers to pause and say “Omigosh! Bob is so insightful! Economic growth is cancerous. We mindlessly bow to it – accept it – demand it even! – unaware that it will eventually destroy us.”
In fact, Bob is painfully sophomoric. The reason is that the case for economic growth is not and never has been “growth for the sake of growth” (although misinformed best-selling authors such as Douglas Rushkoff continue to insist otherwise). Instead, the case for growth is this: growth for the sake of human betterment. The case for economic growth is founded on the fact that it improves human lives, and especially the lives of those who are currently worse off.