[quote=pri_dk]You are arguing that the computer and electronics industries are counter examples of economic growth?[/quote]
Yes, almost everyone in this country now has a tv, a cell phone, and a computer. These new product categories add to economic growth. The electronic parts of the computer get cheaper. The resource based parts remain expensive. The industry is growing as large parts of the world move out of poverty.
[quote=pri_dk]Yeah, available energy could be a limiting factor, and ultimately has limits. But we haven’t even scratched the surface on some of the most potent energy sources, and economic growth doesn’t have to correlate with energy usage.[/quote]
Within a couple of hundred years, we will be reaching the limits of energy production no matter which sources you use. With current technologies, it will be much sooner than that.
[quote=pri_dk]Metals and everything else can be recycled. Food is just energy. Population can be managed.
I’m using LED Christmas lights this year.[/quote]
I did not say that innovation would stop, or that your well being would not continue to increase. Only that economic growth would eventually reach a limit.
In the near future, we will probably all be wearing glasses that will display virtual reality or any other information that we desire. They will start off very expensive, then the cost will fall until they are not much more expensive than a cheap pair of glasses. Sales of most other electronics will be obsolete.
The cost of entertainment is going up now. As the cost of electronics drops, more and more people are creating their own content and distributing it for free on YouTube or Facebook. It will become increasingly difficult for movie makers and tv studios to charge large premiums for their productions.
I am pessimistic in suggesting that this might occur in our lifetimes. Many of us here including me thought that housing prices would hit a peak in the early 2000s. But it is inevitable that the economy will reach a peak within a couple of hundred years.
