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Yeah the difficult thing about industrialization is that the cat’s out of the bag in 2 ways. 1) we recognize the positive impacts that industrialization brings, directly and indirectly. Directly raising GDP has an indirect, positive net effect on quality of life (not spiritually or philosophically, though, I might argue; although, I only think of these things because I live in an industrialized, developed, “rich” nation). 2) we recognize the horrible impact that industrialization has on our world. The industrialized nations are the ones leading the charge in saying, “hey, wait a minute, industrialization is bad! It’s wrecking our world and we will die a horrible death as a species if we continue at this rate so slow down!” But those nations who are just hitting their stride, so to speak, aren’t gonna stop. That’s totally unfair. They think, “what the fuck am I supposed to do? Just sit here and play with sticks? I want the money, I want the goods, I want to be a rich, developed nation.” And so they keep burning, and will keep burning, unless (IMO) the already rich and developed nations somehow help them to develop in the cleanest way possible. |
I don't think you can solve these by fiat.
Governments can only realistically focus on improving the liberty and prosperity of their citizens (you know "life, liberty...).
Happiness is very subjective and I'd say in many cases comes from inside. You could be the richest, most famous and powerful person in the world and still be unhappy.