system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What would happen if economic growth permanently stopped?

Let’s suppose that both the global population growth rate and the global average per-capita GDP growth rate decreased to zero over the course of a decade.  


How would this negatively impact the world? 

How could these impacts be mitigated or prevented?

Are there any books or papers I should read to learn more about this? 


I’ve already read Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth and Prosperity without Growth by Tim Jackson. I didn’t feel that either of these books answered my questions. Both books present arguments in favor of ending GDP growth in order to save the environment. Raworth doesn’t address the downsides at all. Jackson briefly addresses the idea that there would be downsides, but his only proposed solution seems to be the idea that people should live more modestly. 


I certainly sympathize with both authors. I question whether our economy can continue to grow indefinitely without inflicting irreparable damage upon the earth. However, I wonder how humans would be affected by the end of GDP growth. I imagine that unemployment would increase, and employed people would have a harder time saving for retirement.
gpt
Stopping economic growth doesn’t mean we stop using resources. This could doom the environment if there isn’t continued innovation. But with zero economic growth, the economy becomes a zero sum game. Someone’s gain becomes someone else’s loss. And so the incentives to innovate more efficient uses of resources are stifled by equal incentives to stop that innovation. Economic growth not only lifts people out of poverty and improves living standards, it incentivizes innovations that will help protect the environment and our future on the planet. Zero population growth might help protect the earth, but zero economic growth seems like it can only hurt.