[mindcrime]

It is fair to say that some things normally associated with capitalism depend on growth, e.g. equities.

Yeah, I think that's true. If people expect perpetual growth, that seems to imply constantly growing revenue, which would seem to imply the need for constantly growing consumption, which would seem to imply the need for perpetual population growth, etc. My only point is that capitalism, in "textbook form" at least, doesn't specifically demand that. Now, maybe it's an inevitable emergent aspect of capitalism... I honestly don't know. Whether or not that is the case would be an interesting thing to research.