I have been thinking about this for the past couple of weeks and I need someone smarter than me in the realm of Economics to clarify some things for me.
My assumptions of a capitalistic economy (society)
1) A "healthy" capitalistic economy requires sustained year over year growth at healthy levels ( not to fast not to slow).
2)An economy has to grow in order for new people coming into the work force to be able to work. Otherwise unemployment would steadily increase year over year if an economy is stagnant and no new jobs are available.
3) There are more people coming into the work force than exiting the work force at all times. I assume this simply because the population of the United States and the world for that matter has a growing population.
4) For an economy to continue growing over a long period of time (100's of years), and acknowledging that there will be booms and busts along the way, doesnt there need to be an infinite supply of raw materials and ENERGY to sustain reasonable growth year over year? Isn't there a point at which population starts to grow faster than an economy can grow to sustain that very population and give it a decent standard of living, due to scarcity of ENERGY and raw materials? Doesn't it at some point get to where the limits of growth are reached under all currently available sources of energy and an economy must "reset" in order to find a new source of energy to sustain growth into the future?
I am talking theory here, I am not saying that this is happening now, I am just asking if my assumptions are true? I acknowledge that the above is overly simplistic, but I just want to see if my basic premise is correct.....
My assumptions of a capitalistic economy (society)
1) A "healthy" capitalistic economy requires sustained year over year growth at healthy levels ( not to fast not to slow).
2)An economy has to grow in order for new people coming into the work force to be able to work. Otherwise unemployment would steadily increase year over year if an economy is stagnant and no new jobs are available.
3) There are more people coming into the work force than exiting the work force at all times. I assume this simply because the population of the United States and the world for that matter has a growing population.
4) For an economy to continue growing over a long period of time (100's of years), and acknowledging that there will be booms and busts along the way, doesnt there need to be an infinite supply of raw materials and ENERGY to sustain reasonable growth year over year? Isn't there a point at which population starts to grow faster than an economy can grow to sustain that very population and give it a decent standard of living, due to scarcity of ENERGY and raw materials? Doesn't it at some point get to where the limits of growth are reached under all currently available sources of energy and an economy must "reset" in order to find a new source of energy to sustain growth into the future?
I am talking theory here, I am not saying that this is happening now, I am just asking if my assumptions are true? I acknowledge that the above is overly simplistic, but I just want to see if my basic premise is correct.....