Err aff. Only working within capitalism and growth can channel basic human impulses for good.
Terzi, 22—Economist at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs, Adjunct Professor at Sciences Po and at HEC Paris (Alessio, “The True Origins of the Growth Imperative,” Growth for Good: Reshaping Capitalism to Save Humanity from Climate Catastrophe, Chapter 5, pp. 126-127, dml)
If, as we imagine alternative institutions, we choose to ignore basic human cultural traits (perhaps blinded by false dichotomies such as whether people are inherently good or bad), then the mechanics of our society will rapidly turn perverse, as people find ways to go around those institutions. With this understanding, we can see why people would not suddenly embrace a narrative of sufficiency or a steady-state economy. We can appreciate that they would not simply ignore the fact that neighboring countries would begin to have more, thanks to their sustained economic growth and technological progress. We can recognize that impulses to emigrate would begin under ecosocialism. And we can see why redistribution alone, without growth, would lead to an unsustainable equilibrium. In sum, we can understand why capitalism has proved a successful way to organize society hitherto. It channels some basic human impulses.
Rather than fantasizing about changing human nature altogether, it is more promising to acknowledge these traits and try to align them with the environmental imperatives laid out by scientists.70 The odds of achieving this should be stacked up against the odds of accelerating technological change—which, as we saw, is the chief mechanism humanity has used to solve problems throughout its history. It is to this topic that we turn in Chapter 6.