9. A Cancer-like Growth

The advent of the industrial age resulted in alienating workers from their tools and cutting them off from an autonomous way of life. Now, as in the past, this situation is causing an explosive backlash in the uncontrolled growth of the human masses – a defense mechanism against living conditions over which people have no control. It is an instinctive, blind reaction for self-protection, as though through biological stimulation.

We find ourselves faced with a totally new scenario which shows that capital’s exponential development is linked by cause and effect to the exponential growth of the masses. Humankind is of the same plasma, simmering in the same cauldron. The appearance of these two phenomena has created a third one – a novel concept which goes by the name of economic growth.

Large quantities of cheap labor are needed to generate markets and profit. And at the same time, activity distributes a certain amount of wealth, leads to numerous inventions, and raises living standards for most social classes. This combination of large amounts of capital and huge masses leads to overall “progress” – the notion of growth becomes the raison d’être for all the players involved.

Let’s take another look at the imbalance on a global scale:

(Most of the figures in this chapter come from the websiteGlobal Issues).

If we examine the gap between rich and poor countries over the long term, we see that this was:

• 3 to 1 in 1820
• 11 to 1 in 1913
• 35 to 1 in 1950
• 44 to 1 in 1973
• 72 to 1 in 1992

It would be very interesting to set this increase in wealth next to increased demographics, especially in poor countries. The demographic explosion and economic growth are two poles of the same reality.

The connections which make our world one are, at times, very surprising when they become noticeable, so let’s look at the comical yet sinister fact that for the first time in human history, the number of overweight people rivals the number of underweight people. While the world’s underfed population has declined slightly since 1980 to 1.1 billion, the number of overweight people has surged to 1.1 billion.

It is possible that in the long term, growth will help poor countries rise out of poverty, but this is already a cause for deep concern, as it is abundantly clear that growth comes with many damaging side-effects. Without waiting for under-developed or emerging countries to consume as much as we do, which would require the resources of several planets like ours, the alarm bells concerning growth have been ringing insistently for a long time.

Let us take a look at what a few authors among the many from various backgrounds have to say: