ABSTRACT
Assume for the moment that the fear of a trade-induced global depression is unwarranted, that modern macroeconomics has indeed made progress since the days of Sismondi and Hobson. Instead of bracing for a sudden and possibly violent interruption of global expansion, let us now proceed on the presumption of a successfully growing world economy. But far from celebrating this possibility, this chapter will demonstrate that the notion of unlimited economic growth is one of the most serious problems that humanity has ever faced. It threatens our physical well-being and even more so that of generations to come. Overcoming this new predicament will constitute the ultimate challenge to an individualistic conception of economics.
