YOLO Economics: Growth on a Burning Planet
Foreign Policy in Focus: John Feffer
9-14-2016
"I'm not taking about the individuals who declare that "you only live once" (YOLO) before they splurge on the latest Harley-Davidson. I'm thinking more of the environmentalist take on YOLO, interpreting the "you" collectively: we, the human race, also online live once, and therefore this generation should take care to pass on the planet to the next generation in better shape than we received it. "
In the closing of his argument, Feffer brings to the readers attention the need for a new economic model that promotes growth and innovation. Considering the economic climate that we're in at this moment, in that that there has been no economic growth since 2010, and the climate of the planet and the new limitations on production Feffer states that new innovations must consider the environmental ability because of its current state of decline. What does this mean to the inventors and future innovators? What it could mean is that we are in a time of incredible opportunity. We are in a time when Earth's health is not well, as well the majority of the global economies; new innovations that could promote economic growth will have the ability to improve the health of the planet.
We as a species only have one opportunity to improve our own livelihood, and while the trend has been to only improve ones ability to do things easier, as opposed to more productively, in order to make time for other distractions (Feffer uses Facebook and Angry Birds), there is a chance that the trend could shift towards one that promotes productivity while also promoting environmental improvement.
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Miguel,
ReplyDeleteI found your post to very interesting. With climate change you would think that we would move away from the old forms of energy, such as coal and fossil fuels, but the U.S. has barely made any efforts to move away from them. Our country should be investing in wind power, solar power and other forms of renewable energy but it doesn't want to. Why? Because the people who are making a short term profit off the old energy methods have bought off our government, making it impossible for our country to move into a progressive era of clean energy. We need to support researchers, entrepreneurs and others who want to start building clean and renewable energy. We as a collective society have to make small steps and stop using the energies that are being sold to us and instead invest in the new sources. Only then will our country's government take us seriously that we no longer want natural gas, coal or fossil fuels. That we no longer want our planet polluted. That we won't be part of the problem anymore but rather the solution.