The Need for Growth

LET’S GO to the ZEG party! That’s Zero Economic Growth to you, a first cousin to ZPG (Zero Population Growth), and another adopted child of the dubious union among the Ford Foundation, Stewart Mott, and other monied seraphim of the established Left. Not much fun, you say? Why not? What’s more fun than a tax-exempt barrel of bearded social democrats fearfully talking of power plants as if they were bombs? Vegetarians in leather jackets drive their imported cars to Seabrook listening to the Grateful Dead on their Japanese tape decks amid a marijuana haze.

There is no reasonable case against economic growth. All the attempted arguments turn back on themselves. Economic expansion is indispensable, for example, to fight pollution or to develop alternative sources of fuel or to create a new “soft energy system.” The mandate of “beautiful smallness” is best fulfilled in the semi-conductors and microprocessors that are our leading industry of growth. To relieve the world’s hunger and promote development in the Third World, we will need unending economic boom and technological creativity in the West. It will take vast economic gains even to pay for the indexed pensions and medical needs of the coming generations of zealously childfree codgers and crones.

About the Author

George Gilder

Mr. Gilder is a founder of the Discovery Institute, a venture capitalist, and the author of 15 books, including The Israel Test.

Featured Tags

LET’S GO to the ZEG party! That’s Zero Economic Growth to you, a first cousin to ZPG (Zero Population Growth), and another adopted child of the dubious union among the Ford Foundation, Stewart Mott, and other monied seraphim of the established Left. Not much fun, you say? Why not? What’s more fun than a tax-exempt barrel of bearded social democrats fearfully talking of power plants as if they were bombs? Vegetarians in leather jackets drive their imported cars to Seabrook listening to the Grateful Dead on their Japanese tape decks amid a marijuana haze.

There is no reasonable case against economic growth. All the attempted arguments turn back on themselves. Economic expansion is indispensable, for example, to fight pollution or to develop alternative sources of fuel or to create a new “soft energy system.” The mandate of “beautiful smallness” is best fulfilled in the semi-conductors and microprocessors that are our leading industry of growth. To relieve the world’s hunger and promote development in the Third World, we will need unending economic boom and technological creativity in the West. It will take vast economic gains even to pay for the indexed pensions and medical needs of the coming generations of zealously childfree codgers and crones.