MABJan 23, 2023
Kevin Beaumont

The world has become consumed by the idea that growth at all cost is good. It’s normalised now.

Businesses should simultaneously make record profits and lay people off to make more profits, human populations should grow grow grow, growth mindset, deregulate for growth, consume all resources for growth. It’s all about this quarters results.

Another way of looking at is uncontrolled growth is cancerous. It consumes the host, until the host dies.

Jan 22, 2023 at 11:26amWeb
Show threadviqJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog no wonder humanity so often is described as a virus.
Show threadЖийгиJan 22, 2023
@viq @GossiTheDog
In my opinion it's survival of s/he who consumes in the current system. & there are those ensuring there will always be some hungry enough.
Show threadDanny GoossenJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog yup, exactly like a cancer
Show thread🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleJan 22, 2023

@GossiTheDog

It has probably gone past that stage though.

We had the growth at any cost stage, now we have the oh shit we tried to grow too fast and too much so now we have to eat each other to survive stage.

Show threadKraken MareJan 22, 2023
@siobhansarelle @GossiTheDog exactly, but also to a large extent companies tried to lower their expenses in the last century by creating new machines and processes, and now they try to do the same just by underpaying workers instead
Show thread🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleJan 22, 2023

@krakenmare @GossiTheDog

In my case, the company I have worked for, for 20 years, attempted to install a new enterprise wide system, costing millions, in order to improve the service so that much fewer people were needed.

Then they messed it it, so it was costing about a million a day due to problems.

Then they had to lay off lots of people anyway, because they couldn’t afford it.

Then those who were left did fire fighting, installed inefficient workarounds.

Show threadKraken MareJan 22, 2023
@siobhansarelle @GossiTheDog and what I've heard happens a lot when workers leave in that situation, higher-ups will blame those leaving for increased stress on the remaining workers, while also demanding those workers take on the workload of those who left, with no extra compensation for their efforts
Show thread🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleJan 23, 2023

@krakenmare @GossiTheDog

In big business, it’s a case of a revolving door of directors.

A Director comes along, gets paid lots of money to join a company, gets paid lots of money to fuck it up, gets paid lots of money to leave.

They go out the door, one comes in. Blames everything on the last director, says they will do things differently.

They generally all say the same things and all fuck it up.

Show thread🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleJan 23, 2023

@krakenmare @GossiTheDog

People tend to credit people high up in big companies, with a lot more intelligence and competence than they really have.

Show thread🏳️‍⚧️ Siobhán SarelleJan 23, 2023

@krakenmare @GossiTheDog

Not everyone of course, I certainly did. When I was younger I was more along the lines of conspiracy thinking. It does exist to some extent, but generally I found through the years that people in high places are barely in control of a system that runs on incompetence.

Show threadMETADESTROYER !! (He/Him)Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog I guess we aren't stopping to define "growth" in a proper context itself. Growth of what, exactly? Would it be feasible existentially? What are the costs? Why is a particular growth desirable while the costs are bearable?
Show threadArek Bekiersz de KornyátJan 22, 2023

@GossiTheDog Not long ago, when my grandparents lived, #business.es were still about providing value for people, in amount necessary for good living & only in that amount, not larger. Good #entrepreneurship was making some margin by the way, but mostly cultivating & passing artisanal wisdom from Master to Journeyman

It’s how a 1318 yrs old #hotel, 1220 yr old #restaurant still operate - don’t they?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_companies

Where’ve we lost it?😔

Show threadFlorian HaasJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog I've been using this same analogy for a while now, and people always look at me all bug-eyed...
Show threadInterpipes 💙Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog “the share price of Brawndo started to tank and the computer did the auto layoff thing!!!!”
Show threadIan Towner Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog exactly this!! The problem is that there is no obvious solution to this problem and therefore collapse is inevitable, it’s just how and when… even the most enlightened person is trapped in this system. Bit depressing for a Sunday afternoon!
Show threadEnergetic NovaJan 22, 2023

@itowner @GossiTheDog

Acceptance that the world is more complex has been helpful for me.

Show threadbitspookJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog “Cancerous growth”! Now that’s a term to invest in.
Show thread0xC0DEC0DE07EAJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog Agent Smith monologue wasn’t wrong.
Show threadDario LandazuriJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog I blame Milton Friedman and his theory of shareholder primacy.
Show threadKLBJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog @kuoirad me too.
Show threadDC 👁️🐝Ⓜ️Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog I've said for years that continuous growth of anything.. business, whatever just isn't sustainable. It doesn't mean that people, commerce, markets can't thrive but growth forever just isn't feasible. What's the answer - that's what capitalism is, continuous growth. Barely any talk about improving living standards and rights.
Show threadConanJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1948262.Limits_to_Growth
Limits to Growth

The Limits to Growth is a 1972 book modeling the conse…

Goodreads
Show threadDave from accountingJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog
And if you are not down with this, you are automatically a "woke commie socialist"
Show threadLynn GrantJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog Excellent analogy.
Show threadclimate voter/degrowthistJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog It has been normalized for decades. I was ranting against growth in the early 1970s. That was when "The Limits to Growth" came out. We were warned and did not take heed.
Show threadInfosec V'gerJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog I thought I was the only one who saw things this way. Thank you.
Show threadBryan (they/them)Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog there’s actually a pretty great case for continuing to have the human population grow.
Show threadJWSGeek (Moving: Universeodon)Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog or as the Matrix's Agent Smith describes it, Humans are a virus...
Show threadParanoid FactoidJan 22, 2023

@GossiTheDog

Or bacteria in a petri dish. They want indefinite exponential growth in a finite environment.

This is also why Space Karen wants space. Infinite environment for growth. Except for that inhospitable part they gloss over.

In space no one can hear you die.

Show threadSoulstar CommandJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog The real problems does not exist "outside of ourselves",... but? only a few really dare to realize/understand/see this? For any (real) "change to occur", we must "look ourselves in the mirror", and realize the real problems exists *within ourselves*, (in our ego, nowhere else), and no change CAN (ever) happen, until we dare to realize/understand/see this...
Show threadPNW DebJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog 💯
Show threadVHaschJan 22, 2023

@GossiTheDog

I realized something was crazy when "beat last year" became the most important yardstick of business success.

Eventually, either prices get too high, or you run out of customers to steal from the competition.

Show threadKraken MareJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins has a great quote about this in his autobiography, carrying the fire: "we need a new economic paradigm to create prosperity without growth"
Show threadPupitoJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog As long as the countries leaders are so obsessed with growth this is going to continue and drive us to self destruction
Show threadmav Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog "Normalized" is doing a lot of work. Literally every global economy is based on it. Even *North Korea*. It's a poison that has wormed its way into literally every aspect of daily life. I would argue it's the greatest mistake humankind has ever made.
Show threadJamesTDGJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog essentially, capitalism is a parasite?
Show threadKLBJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog YES. It’s not possible— or healthy— to constantly grow. And so often one company’s growth is dependent on hurting another company!
Show threadLibertyForward1Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog Excellent analogy. Perhaps we should start replacing "capitalism" in our vocabulary with "cancerism".
Show threadAndreas KellerJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog Attitudes, theories and know-how leading to faster growth become dominant in the course of history. Groups growing fastest will destroy or assimilate others. Their attitudes then become the basis for the next round. The growth ideology is part of this. It is a self-amplifying process. When this ideology started, world economy was smaller by about factor 600. Initially, the limits of resources could be ignored. It seemed to work. Now, we are hitting the limits.
Show threadGantraJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog Absolutely true.
Show threadIan SmithJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog I don't see how all economies can keep on growing, as consumption will have to settle at some point. And we'll exhaust resources
Show threadNeil A. EvansJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog all of this. We’re seeing perfectly profitable (indeed insanely profitable) companies laying people off left right and center acting as if they’re close to bankruptcy simply because shareholders are taking ludicrous profits that they’re throwing back into ruinous private equity buyouts and crating money out of thin air shorting markets to the point where they’re becoming fundamentally unstable.
Show thread@dillyishJan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog
Agreed! Though I can't help but be a little surprised that despite how long this thread is, no one has yet brought up what seems to me to be the necessary remedy: to make powerful shifts (culturally and individually) in our relationship with loss and death. It's easy to become unbalanced in our embrace of growth if we are unable to let go of things that are ready to be let go of. Growth and loss are deeply intertwined and can be equally challenging and uncomfortable, but growth is normalized and celebrated while loss is often positioned as unnecessary, avoidable, an aberration.
Show threadStephen G.Jan 22, 2023
@GossiTheDog Man has a parasitical relationship with its environment... Doesn't make us unique but our "intelligence" has made us more efficient at destruction of the home we are given. And "wisdom" is in short supply...
Show threadSing Me Your BluesJan 23, 2023
@GossiTheDog
An Amen to that.
Show threadTom MoffattJan 23, 2023
Of course the idea of infinite growth in a finite environment is ludicrous. The best practice for business and governments is to base their policies on successfully managing change. Change IS infinite and how we adapt to it determines our success.
@GossiTheDog
Show threadWayne WernerJan 23, 2023
@GossiTheDog capitalism is definitely a cancer