[pmohun]

It’s a good question.

The reason that GDP growth is so important is because it raises the standard of living for those who aren’t yet born. If you accept the premise that lives in the future matter just as much as those today, then the vast majority of human lives are yet to be born and therefore deserve consideration about what to do __today__.

Even small changes in GDP growth (e.g. 1-2% per year) has dramatic compounding effects over a multi decade timeframe.

For a great book on this, I recommend Tyler Cowen’s Stubborn Attachments which discusses the ethics of economic growth: https://press.stripe.com/stubborn-attachments

[walleeee]

> it raises the standard of living for those who aren’t yet born

assuming by standard of living we mean quality of life: to accept this one must ignore or rationalize the ways our pursuit of GDP growth is making the planet a less hospitable place for the yet unborn

if instead we mean material expectations, then yes, you're right, but part of the problem is our rapidly growing accustomed to lifestyles that can't be sustained under the present matrix of social and physical technology

[softcactus]

I'm not saying GDP shouldn't grow in developing nations. But how and why do we expect GDP to grow infinitely in developed nations? If we all have food, clothing, housing, medicine, leisure, and fulfillment then why would we need GDP to keep going up?

[mgh2]

Ask the FIRE people: work/productivity has purpose https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20792026