A person stops growing when they reach maturity. Why should we expect economic growth to be the norm? The economic growth of a mature country could be positive or negative, reflecting changes in population profile, inflation, advances in technology, etc.
How many people would worry about their offspring stop growing after they reach a certain age? It is taken for granted that everything stabilises when it reaches maturity. But most people, from politicians to ordinary people, seem to be worried when the economy doesn't grow. Why?
One may expect economic growth if the size of the population grows. In that case, when the population ages, and more people retire, one should expect decrease in economic growth.
One may also expect growth as a reflection of inflation; i.e. although there may be no growth in actual production, the value of the production increases in monetary value. In that case, growth rate should be expected to align with inflation rate.
One may also expect growth resulted from technology advances. Innovation stimulates new consumption. But one should also expect old technology to be faded out. For example, the new light bulbs last for much longer, and consume far less electricity. So new technology could also lead to reduced consumption.
It is difficult to understand why the economy must growth. It is more reasonable to believe that economies will growth until maturity, from which growth reflects changes in population profile, inflation, advances in technology, etc. The net growth could be positive or negative.
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