Bill Maher Skewers “Growth, Growth, Holy Growth”
Bill Maher thinks, “Everybody but me has their head up their ass,” according to the title of his most recent book. A week ago on his HBO show, Real Time with Bill Maher, he was quite right. Apple’s release of the newest iPhone inspired him to excoriate our obsession with MORE. That is definitely an area in which most of the world has their heads up their asses. This earns Maher a second turn on the Wall of Fame here at Growth Bias Busted:
You don’t need me to explain it to you; just watch and enjoy his truth. Then relish these pearls of wisdom I just had to transcribe:
“…because somebody has to teach Americans that we don’t always have to have something new or better every year, or in the case of our upside-down economic system, every quarter.”
“You’re not early adopting. In fact, quite the opposite, you’re taking too long to catch on.”
“Americans keep asking, ‘Why doesn’t our economy work for people like me?’ Because it’s not designed to. Because somewhere along the way, we bought into this insane idea that everything always has to get bigger – especially sales. Having a really good year, and then repeating it? Not good enough. In corporate America, the stock market is the tail that wags the dog. Growth, growth, holy growth is the only thing that ever matters.”
Applause, applause. Thanks for saying it. Of course our destructive obsession with growth extends far beyond the stock market. If this idea is new to you, we’ve compiled a few links to bring you up to speed at More About Limits to Growth.
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Tags: economic growth, limits to growth
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Brian Sanderson
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Way back in 2000 I was building a house at a somewhat isolated location. Someone told me “You really should get a cell phone”. I looked around at how people were using their cell phones. I concluded that they were all busy trying to optimize the rest of the world for their personal convenience — and in the process, messing things up for everyone else and wasting vast amounts of time.
Of cause Maher is rubbishing “more” in the qualitative sense. But sometimes “more” needs to be rubbished both quantitatively and qualitatively.
As for Apple, I flushed Apple way back in 1980… but that’s another story for another day.
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