Re: Sustainable economic growth?
Mariann Jelinek (mxjeli@mail.wm.edu)
Thu, 12 Jan 1995 11:54:52 -0500
MDARLING'S comment on economic sustainability caught my eye:
I wonder about the applicability of the old "creative destruction"
ideas of Schumpeter in the sustainable growth discussion. It seems to me
that one important result of technological advance in my lifetime has been
the increasing miniaturization via electronics, with concomitant decreases
in power: older, larger, more energy-expensive technologies have been
superceded. Similarly, developments of passive solar heating and insulation
have both improved likelihood and possibility of much more sustainable
homes.
This suggests to me that as pollution and energy use (for instance)
decrease, the "carrying capacity" of the environment increases.
A related set of issues: increasing use of co-generation
facilities, recycling for reuse of plastics (e.g., Polartec from plastic
bottles; minimills to recycle steel) and the substitution of electronic
information for paper or for personal travel all offer ways to accomplish
tasks that are less expensive of energy and materials, and thus, arguably,
"more sustainable" than older methods.
By contrast, the collapse of the East Bloc revealed a system in
which these methods did not develop, the usual argument being that the
Communist system had no means to enforce economic accountability: it is
cheaper not to pollute (which is, after all, wasteful: all that stuff put
into the environment could be used, instead), and to recycle. Overall, the
discipline is for more efficient (less wasteful, less polluting) processes
to indeed be cheaper.
While these aren't complete answers to the question, it seems to me
that we have become more information intensive, and, as a result, more
efficient in a great number of manufacturing processes. These improvements
permit further "growth," and at the same time the "creative destruction" of
older approaches, a la Schumpeter, provides "space" within which to
"expand" by displacing older activities. Questions and issues undoubtedly
remain, among them the problems of birthrate and undisciplined exploitation
so visible in, say, Bangkok or Guangzhao (cf "The Tragedy of the Commons"
by Garret Harding).
MXJELI@MAIL.WM.EDU
Mariann Jelinek
Richard C. Kraemer Professor of Business
Graduate School of Business,
College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Tel. (804) 221-2882 FAX: (804) 229-6135