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by balsam 4951 days ago
could there be a case however against economic growth being too fast? an example of too fast would be building a chernobyl before the safety infrastructure was up.
3 comments

I am not sure how shoddy engineering equates with too fast economic growth. That seems like defining your terms so generally that they can refer to almost anything.

I also think it is ironic that you chose as an example an infrastructure project not built as the result of capitalism.

As others have pointed out, Chernobyl is a terribly example for the point you're trying to make.

Growth can probably be too fast - China has some problems in this regard, infrastructure, basic services, environmental concerns, the political system etc. can't quite keep up with the reasonable demands of a rapidly growing new middle class.

The growth rates attainable for the US and Europe, however, are unlikely to be dangerous.

I wouldn't consider that growth, though.
Web.py is arguably an example of shoddy engineering in explosive software startups that did not become a medical experiment.

"The results show that foremost among the causes of growth in U.S., German and Japanese manufacturing value added is electric power consumption."[1] Now I wouldn't pay too much attention to the word "causes" in there, but...

Define your terms too precisely and there would be nothing to think about.

[1]"Engineering and Economic Growth" http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0954349X04...