{"id":359490,"date":"2018-05-03T06:47:08","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T05:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/natures-breaking-point\/"},"modified":"2018-05-03T06:47:08","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T05:47:08","slug":"natures-breaking-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/natures-breaking-point\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature\u2019s Breaking Point"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<div id=\"attachment_101750\" style=\"width: 520px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-101750\" src=\"https:\/\/uziiw38pmyg1ai60732c4011-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/dropzone\/2018\/05\/Screen-Shot-2018-05-01-at-8.17.55-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"348\"  \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann | <a href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/2.0\/\">CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ever wonder how the classical philosophers\/economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo would view today\u2019s credo of infinite economic growth, forever more, above and beyond yesteryear. Well, in a word, they would be horrified. Ricardo, similar to the father of capitalism Adam Smith, believed in the concept of a \u201cstationary state\u201d when the land gets fully exploited and material progress comes to an end.<\/p>\n<p>These classical economists did not advocate limitless growth, which today is how neoliberal advocates see their destiny. In fact, Ricardo added the \u201claw of diminishing returns\u201d to Smith\u2019s original thesis, which included bold mention of the \u201cstationary state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Well, surprise, surprise, or maybe no surprise! Today, Adam Smith and Ricardo would be labeled heretics as capitalism has morphed into a universal conviction that humankind is destined for enrichment via unparalleled unlimited economic growth. As such, GDP is revered; it\u2019s maddeningly godly, a quarter-by-quarterly s\u00e9ance whilst prostrate on hands and knees in solemn prayer for profits, and more profits, and even more after that!<\/p>\n<p>But, are there limits, and if so, what if limits are exceeded?<\/p>\n<p>Then, what happens?<\/p>\n<p>As a matter of fact, the limits have been exceeded, by a country mile. That fact is beautifully expounded in graphic detail in Donald Worster\u2019s Shrinking The Earth, subtitle: The Rise &amp; Decline of Natural Abundance (Oxford University Press,&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2018\/05\/02\/natures-breaking-point\/\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo by Karl-Ludwig Poggemann | CC BY 2.0 Ever wonder how the classical philosophers\/economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo would view today\u2019s credo of infinite economic growth, forever more, above and beyond yesteryear. Well, in a word, they would be horrified. Ricardo, similar to the father of capitalism Adam Smith, believed in the concept [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-359490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}