[ox-en] Necessary growth (was: Re: Explanation of interest)

Hi list!

Last week (9 days ago) Michel Bauwens wrote:
> but
> infinite growth is a problem in a finite environment

This is certainly true. But the question is whether human society is
completely described by a finite environment.

Of course I agree that natural resources are limited in the sense of
limitations I explained a few days ago. And these limitations of
course impact human society. But does this mean that growth is limited
as well? I don't think so.

The interesting question perhaps is what growth actually means. As
someone interested in a good life for everyone I certainly do not
think that growth in the sense of improvements of life always mean an
expansion of the use of limited resources. In particular I don't think
that a growing amount of Selbstentfaltung necessarily means a growing
use of limited resources. For instance if you more often apply your
abilities in producing useful things successfully then your
Selbstentfaltung grows. But this does not mean necessarily that you
use more limited resources than before - rather in the contrary.

When I think about generalizing peer production (i.e. open and
Selbstentfaltung-based production) people often complain that there
are necessary tasks people need to be forced to - for instance by
bribing them with exchange. You can re-read this complaint this way:
There is not enough use value in (technical) means of production so
the necessary tasks need to be addressed by labor. To overcome this a
growth of the use value of things is ultimately necessary.

In this sense growth of use value is a necessary pre-condition of an
expansion of peer production.


						Grüße

						Stefan
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