My discussion with Butler got to the essence of his thinking. His basic view was increasing productivity is a threat to quality of life. It's clearly an over-simplistic way of looking at economics and life. I would say economic development and quality of life go hand in hand in Western economies. The Chinese also raised their productivity by leaps and bounds. They were able to provide millions of millions modern lives.
Let's say a society collectively decides they want to trade less economic growth for a higher quality of life. My general belief is that over the long-run the pressures build as the economy stagnates. But let's just go with the initial tenet. The real glaring problem was the earlier chart citing low levels of Canadian investment in industrial machinery and equipment.
Does any Canadian really not see the problem? Do they object to more mechanization? Are they Luddites?
How the hell are you going to get all these commodities out of the ground, move them over the Rockies and loaded on to Asian-bound ships?
Idealism can be a very dangerous thing when it lapses into fantasies. It's having thoughts like Mamdani the Mayor of NYC bouncing around in your head.
Last edited:
