2022-06-26 10:16 from Nurb432
Bought gas for 4.80 a gallon yesterday. Sad that it was considered a
'deal'.. 

I paid more than 6 not so long ago, for 93 octane.

100 octane at the track was going for more than 14, and 110 leaded was in the high 13's, almost $14...

I filled up for under $40 the other day. But enough about my lawnmower...

Ok, here's a nice juicy economics bit to chew on.

I heard someone say a few days ago that a typical economy requires ever-increasing population for the economy to remain healthy.

Is that true? Supposedly this is widely agreed upon, but it doesn't sound right to me. It would seem that there has to be some sort of equilibrium available.

2022-11-20 23:04 from IGnatius T Foobar <ajc@citadel.org>

Ok, here's a nice juicy economics bit to chew on.

I heard someone say a few days ago that a typical economy requires
ever-increasing population for the economy to remain healthy.

Is that true? Supposedly this is widely agreed upon, but it doesn't

sound right to me. It would seem that there has to be some sort of
equilibrium available.

Maybe they were thinking of social security. It's an understandable mistake, most people seem to think "the economy" is something that comes from the government.

2022-11-20 18:04 from IGnatius T Foobar

Ok, here's a nice juicy economics bit to chew on.

I heard someone say a few days ago that a typical economy requires

ever-increasing population for the economy to remain healthy.

Is that true? Supposedly this is widely agreed upon, but it doesn't

sound right to me. It would seem that there has to be some sort of

equilibrium available.

A lot of people seems to think you require an ever-growing economy to keep economy healthy. I have found most of that people to be Keynessians, who criticise Capitalism because it has a tendency to grow and need growth. Then they push policies that are designed to keep the economy growing artificially.

"The real state market is Capitalist and that is the reason why it is causing $country to crash. Since the real state market cannot grow anymore we will be facing a crisis. What we must now do is reject free market Capitalism and give loans away so people can keep buying homes and therefore avoid the crisis."

Hayek had some words for this in one of his books. You can have a deflating economy and be ok as long as you don't crash from a stupid position. ie. if your village has less productive output you will survive unless you have spend all your grain reserves in stupid stuff and have absolutely no food reserves.

I heard someone say a few days ago that a typical economy requires
ever-increasing population for the economy to remain healthy.

Is that true? Supposedly this is widely agreed upon, but it doesn't

sound right to me. It would seem that there has to be some sort of
equilibrium available.

Frequently claimed but never proven. Basically we all have certain expectations built into our planning. When those expectations are disrupted, chaos ensues, but the world eventually goes on.

Maybe they were thinking of social security. It's an understandable
mistake, most people seem to think "the economy" is something that
comes from the government.

That might be part of it; as was suggested, perhaps the perception of growth requirement comes from those who lean Keynesian.

It's not crazy, though. Fractional reserve banking probably depends on an expectation of continued growth in some way. I'm not one of those "fractional reserve banking must be banned immediately" people; that's a notion I reject on grounds that are essentially libertarian.

But it seems untuitively correct that if growth were to stop, everyone's financing expectations would be disrupted, and waves of bankruptcy could ensue.

So that's why it's important to separate real growth from nominal growth.

*intuitively