Maybe global sustainability is the word (and hope) rather than growth.

The American economy seems to be rife with shady business practices. Just the other day the internet bill for my parent's jumped from something like $140 to $500+. The sales person gets you a special 1 year deal but what is the likelihood that you are told upfront what you will pay when it ends. Then somehow, because you get to argue with them on the phone, you magically get to reinstate the special deal and you have to do this every year. Why don't they just say: "No! Your cheap rate has ended. Pay or fuck off."

Then there was Wells Fargo insanity a while back. Employees were opening extra accounts for customers without their knowledge just so they could incur extra fees. All the while, if you have substantial money in the bank, it's being rented out for the bank to make money. So we get to pay fees for others to loan our money out.

From the point of view of the customer we're being swindled but from the aggregate cost of mass consumerism we see, what we think is good for us (cheap goods or the compound growth of accumulated dollars loaned for growth) is presenting us with global problems, like climate change, pollution, labor exploitation and resource depletion.

In the bigger picture you can't grow if someone is gaining more than your growth.

In the bigger picture you can't grow if someone is gaining more than your growth. — Tiberiusmoon

The big picture is way too complicated. It's about competitive advantage of businesses (or just individuals) on a global/local field and the matching patchwork of national constraints upon those businesses/people. Which governing entities have leverage over which other entities from policy to natural resources?

It is easier to focus on our individual growth (or just survival) as we find our place by luck and effort in the jungle of our local economies, the big picture be damned(?).

There are forces at work (like our fondness for the taste of fruit, beef and other luxuries) that favor naive ignorance about the conditions and trade-offs which create those luxuries. Crude exploitation of labor on one hand can lead to great gains. Businesses can get hand outs at the level of policy because those making the policy have great stakes in the growth of business.

But I'm not sure how relevant my response is to what you are asking. Our well being is all inextricably linked together and hopefully we can manage to respond in a way that doesn't cause a collapse of the national system, so to speak.