ENVR 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Market Failure, Gross Domestic Product, Genuine Progress Indicator
9 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Economic growth is needed to keep jobs and social order. It creates opportunities for poor to become wealthier: progress is measured by economic growth. Endless growth cannot be sustained, because resources to support growth are ultimately limited: modern global economic growth is unprecedented, americans are in a frenzy of consumption. Improvements in efficiency of production (technology, ideas, equipment: uncontrolled economic growth is unsustainable, resources are finite or have limited rates of extraction. Technological innovation can push back limits, but not forever. Economies grow by increasing efficiency to attain sustainability within our current economic system. Environmental economists developed methods to tackle the problem of external costs and discounting. Economies that mirror natural ecological systems: quality of life increases through technological advances. They neither grow nor shrink but stay stable. The monetary value of final goods and services produced each year: has (cid:271)ee(cid:374) used for de(cid:272)ades to assess ea(cid:272)h (cid:374)atio(cid:374)"s e(cid:272)o(cid:374)o(cid:373)y.
