Following on from the various tax/growth/rich/poor threads: why is growth stagnating? I have two answers. No link to start the thread as these are my own observations.
1/ We are bouncing off the level of growth that can be achieved before it increases energy demand. High growth leads to high energy demand which in turn results in high energy prices which in turn put the brakes on growth.
2/ Like the Japanese twenty years ago we have reached the stage where everyone has all the "stuff" they really need. The stuff they buy is to replace old stuff at a rate that doesn't stimulate growth. Companies don't need to hire more workers or even encourage overtime. Workers can only live beyond their means to a point and reached that point long ago. Given their current lifestyle their is little incentive to be entrepreneurial so they tick along in the day job that pays the bills rather than investing themselves in a growth stimulating venture. Complacency in a comfort zone.
The answers?
The energy issue is easy. Invest heavily in alternative energies so economic groth is not capped by oil production capacity.
Making people less complacent less easy. However, I'd start by taking over the BBC and replacing the dumbed-down, lowest-common-denominator opium with something a little more aspirational.
Well? Are you going to vote for me or flame me?
Apart from that there are lots of valid points in the replies. I know we don't have exactly the same issues as Japan but I think we should try to learn from their experience of stagnation. We can predict the challenges the future will bring and the earlier we change our infrastructure, lifestyle and business models to suit the better we will ride out the change.
