Kurs Einführung in die Postwachstumsökonomik 2.2

About this Video

• Video Title: Kurs Einführung in die Postwachstumsökonomik 2.2
• Channel: Zeta86
• Speakers: The transcript does not name the speaker.
• Duration: 00:25:29

Introduction

This video lecture discusses the ethical implications of economic growth. The speaker questions the origins of industrial wealth, examining whether it's a result of human effort and thus ethically justifiable, or if it's based on unsustainable practices. The lecture explores various economic narratives explaining wealth creation and contrasts those narratives with a perspective that highlights the unsustainable nature of current growth models.

Key Takeaways

• The ethical justification of wealth: The lecture questions whether current levels of wealth are ethically justifiable, considering their origins and sustainability.
• Narratives of wealth creation: Several economic perspectives (Physiocrats, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, David Ricardo, Georg Simmel, Max Weber, Schumpeter, Robert Solow, Walter Eucken, Heinsohn/Steiger, and Deirdre McCloskey) are presented, each offering a different explanation of wealth generation, with a common thread being that wealth stems from human effort in various forms.
• The myth of efficiency and productivity: The lecture argues against the idea that current economic growth is solely a product of increased efficiency, productivity, and innovation. It posits that much of it stems from unsustainable resource consumption and debt.
• The concept of "plunder": The speaker introduces the concept of "plunder," arguing that current economic growth involves hidden resource depletion and unsustainable debt, shifting the burden to future generations.
• Three levels of "boundary transgression": The lecture identifies three aspects of unsustainable growth: temporal (debt), physical (resource consumption beyond human capacity), and spatial (global supply chains and reliance on resources from distant, often exploited regions).