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Growth as a goal for societies is basically brand new.

"Historians and social scientists have sought to explain the origins of the political hegemony of growth: the dominance of the pursuit of GDP growth as a political objective. Growth might not be an economic imperative in the abstract, this literature suggests, but rather a political imperative, locked in by power relations, institutions, and accounting systems geared towards its pursuit. The contemporary preoccupation with GDP first emerged as a response to the need of governments to manage economic production during the Great Depression and the Second World War, whereas growth-targeting became entrenched during the Cold War, linked to the arms race between the two blocs. An iterative process between accounting and targeting, and the institutions geared towards the measurement and pursuit of GDP, gradually made growth appear as a natural and unquestionable objective. But the success of growth, as a political objective, stems from its function, which was to appease and deflect distributional conflict, becoming a core factor of state legitimacy and political stability."

Btw basically every sentence in this has citations, in case you want to read MORE. I'm taking the citation numbers out to make for easier reading.

#Degrowth #history #WWII #ColdWar #Growth #EconomicGrowth @histodons

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(24)00310-3/fulltext