[JumpCrisscross]

> A flaw with current economics is that they expect the economy to grow exponentially while resources including energy are linear

The amount of energy the world consumes to produce 1 unit of GDP declined by 32% between 1990 and 2015 [1]. Measuring macroeconomic material intensity is more complicated [2], but the core of your misconception derives from the subjectivity of value.

One way to make a car more valuable might be to make it twice as heavy. But another could be to make it a nicer color. Or give it better software. (Better being defined solely by price.) As our world becomes immaterial, the decoupling of material inputs and economic output makes sense. It also lays the ground for theoretically infinite economic growth. As long as peoples' utility is being increased the economy will grow.

[1] https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=27032

[2] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/03014207859...