system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Eli5: Why do we need growth to have a viable society ?

We hear a lot that decreasing or not growing would not be viable, why is that ?
gpt
We could probably get away with a slow level of growth.  The problem is that once you start shrinking there's some structural problems.  With the workforce in particular, it starts aging out very rapidly.  Society is at least mildly a pyramid scheme, if there aren't enough young people to support the old people the thing collapses.  On that note either people have to work older or have younger people replace them.  You can approach a steady state with less but more sustained growth, but it's a hard point to reach.