Whichever
How often I have wished that public economic decision-making would be done on the basis of common sense, which is to say, in the opposite way to what most think necessary. Unlike me, for instance, the majority will consistently vote “forwards.” My own preference for “backwards” never wins.
But “economic growth” should not be the ambition of the state, except in private life where, owing to the mysterious phenomenon of “freedom,” individual people and their families may continue to grow rich, or begin to do so if they haven’t before, within the laws (as the state ought to prefer). Others might, by comparative good fortune, grow poorer, or begin to do so, not entirely from choice: but within the laws. One may be fatalist about this. The state, however, should always consider itself neutral, and need not care how much wealth its citizens have amassed, or failed to amass. Note: the keeping of statistics has always been vile.
Consider Japan. The national income (“GNP” or “GDP” is the outrageous way they used to measure this) has been failing to grow for the last three or four decades. Before that, it was growing rather quickly, even though before that again, there was a nationalist firestorm and “the people” were rather seriously burnt. These things happen.
And very well: you work a bit harder to recover from disasters (almost all of which are instances of self-harm), and the population naturally recovers afterwards (when people once again merrily reproduce). They eat more food, as they become more numerous, and would, even if the quality hadn’t improved. Indeed, the goodness of food is not only a question of wealth, but a case of real alimentary decision: some people like fine food, others prefer junk. Let each of them decide, within his means. It isn’t a political question.
But as a clever Japanese economist has pointed out, the overall population has been declining, for several decades. The income per person has nevertheless been increasing. “GNP per capita” is still going up. And when, owing to the very low birth rate, the country becomes extinct (apparently less quickly than China or Korea), all will continue to be well. For a people that has ceased to exist does not consume anything at all.
Truly, we live in the best of all possible worlds: whether we are moving forwards or backwards.