You have the example of the United States which has economic growth but has recently seen its average life expectancy fall.
Many other countries have less GPD per capita but higher average life expectancy.
What do you think of this?
The title should say economic growth and not prosperity. You can have prosperity in a system whose objective is not infinite growth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPUogXUkr7I
If the objective of the system is to produce stuff you need to think in large scale. When we do that we favor big corporations and as you say business around you shut down.
So change this system will help to solve your problem to.
How do you think we can solve the problem you pointed at?
Whenever I talk about this I am downvoted too.
I follow hacker news for the rationality in the comments but on this subject it is rare to exchange good arguments.
This proves that we need a system change. Covid made that, we change from a system with the objective of producing stuff to a system with the goal of saving lives.
People of HN should take a look of the clube of rome book "limits of growth".
GND will not save us beacause it will demand energy and resources to swap all the infraestructure. At most developed countries will shift their enviromental cost to the poor ones
The aim of the economy before the covid is to produce things and this production is no longer synonymous with increased comfort. For example, Spain has many more houses than families but these families have more difficulty in paying rents.
However this production has to exist in order to maintain a profit of a few and above all to give work to the rest.
But what we have to do to avoid anthropocene is not compatible with this economy and so we have to think of a post-work society.
I advice everyone interested in ecology to learn about the Club of Rome and the Limits of Growth.
This is the true inconvenient truth specially for people in businesses that treat growth as the ultimate objective.
This reminds me moves in the fast fashion business were you can dispose your clothes and receive vouchers. The consumer feels good because he is caring for the environment and the store can keep selling more stuff.
Not only programmers, many of us tend to look at progress as an end in itself. Progress is the process of measuring if we achieve the objectives, it can not be the objective. Many times we do not achieve 100% of the objectives and that is fine, we need to consider the law of diminishing returns.