The Strange Necessity of Infinite Economic Growth

Despite intuitive claims to the contrary, infinite economic growth is not just possible — it’s essential for human flourishing.

In an article for Foreign Policy, the anthropologist Jason Hickel has recently called for an end to global economic growth, as the only way to avoid total ecological destruction. He argues that so called ‘green growth’ — the idea that we can decouple intensive resource use from economic growth — is a myth. George Monbiot has shared a similar concern, echoing previous warnings by influential writers Naomi Klein and Paul Ehrlich.

I’m going to focus on Hickel’s work, since it contains several related misconceptions that are nonetheless highly intuitive. In his article and across his other writings, Hickel makes three key basic claims:

1. There are hard physical limits to how efficiently we can use resources. It follows that infinite economic growth is impossible on our physically finite planet.

2. Empirical studies are showing that we cannot ‘decouple’ resource use from economic growth, meaning we will run out of resources if economic growth continues.

3. We can maintain high living standards even with zero global economic growth.

Let’s look at each claim in turn.