Envisioning a Successful Steady-State Economy

Abstract

There are two interacting types of argument for a steady-state economy: its biopyhsical necessity, and its ethical desirability. The first argument is made in terms of the finitude, entropy, and physical maintenance requirements of “dissipative structures” (populations of human bodies and their exosomatic extensions). The second argument considers that the evolution of the human species is now purpose-driven, no longer random, if indeed it ever was. Purpose introduces value judgments of right and wrong regarding how our economy should relate to the rest of creation – judgments ignored by both neoclassical economics and neo-Darwinist naturalism.