Steady state economics.

[MarcosP]

What do you guys think of steady state economics and this organization steadystate.org? They seem to be making a lot of assumptions on growth, free markets, and their ability to centrally plan an entire economy. The only reason I ask is that we are discussing it this week in my Econ class and I wanted an Austrian perspective or review of the concept.

[furface]

I think you're right about assumptions about centrally planned economies. Steady state versus growth is decided primarily through demographics, not through planning. Probably some sort of equation like:

Growth = Population Growth + Technological Growth + Standard of living increase.

"Steady state" means zero growth. However, it's not quite completely desirable because technology and standard of living increases, which are themselves related, also fit into the equation.

Zero population growth is something that certain countries like China have planned for and will likely achieve. Other countries like Japan & Russia are having problems with low growth or negative population growth.

If you're talking about resource management, that's great. Base money & taxation on natural resources, not banking interests & labor. We should definitely strive to minimize resource consumption, but that's very different than economic growth.