GROWTH MANTRA IN OUR ECONOMY

Steve Kannon of the Woolwich Observer (located in Elmira, Ontario) is one of my favourite writers and editors. His latest "Editor's Notes" in last week's Observer is titled "Obsession with growth is behind much of what ails us as a society". Quoting from his article: "In fact, many of the problems plaguing the planet-most of them the result of our sucesses as a species and our failures as human beings-could be lessened by focusing on a degrowth mantra.".

"We have lived for 200 years in a growth economy. That makes it hard to imagine what a steady-state economy (SSE) would be like, even though for most of our history mankind has lived in an economy in which annual growth was negligible.".

"The environmental impact of human activity is the clearest indicator of where growth is a problem. We use up nonrenewable resources and we spew pollutants into the air, water and soil. That can't go on forever.".

"The high quality of life that most people in the North believe that they enjoy is increasingly an illusion. They may spend more on consumer goods and services, but they forget to deduct the costs of these things: reductions in the quality of life because of poor air and water and a degraded environment.".

There is an expression which I have understood to be "externalizing of costs". Steve refers to them as "...externalities: transferring to society the costs of production while the profits go to individuals and companies.".

It is my and others opinions that one of these "externalities" would include ever increasing rates of cancer in North American society. Simply look around you at your family, both immediate and a little further afield. As a young man fourty years ago and more I knew of zero relatives with cancer. Now cancer is throughout my family and my wife's and I fully expect everyone else's. Are our toys and relative affluence really worth that cost? I think not.