Re: Exponential growth!
 

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Similair claims have been made for centuries. Pick a resource. This is not to say that depletion is not possible, but it is also not inevitable.

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Depletion is inevitable. What is not inevitable is any form of catastrophic result from said depletion.

Re: Exponential growth!
 

Use of all oil reserves is not inevitable, an alternative fuel could be discovered tommorrow.

Re: Exponential growth!
 

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Use of all oil reserves is not inevitable, an alternative fuel could be discovered tommorrow.

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I'm not talking about oil specifically. But of course you are correct. There is a non-zero chanse that tomorrow someone finds an alternative fuel that beats oil in all ways and especially in price. It's non-zero, but it's darn close to zero.

But even so, of course we will not use up all oil in the ground, we simply can't get to it. So if by "depletion" you mean using up every last bit, then no, that won't happen. But that's not really what's interesting, is it.

Re: GDP?
 

Wow. What a huge leap from GDP to per capita GDP to income and back again. GDP literally has nothing to do with income. Its simply an estimate (and others have commented on how bad these estimates have been over time) of the market value of all the final goods and services produced (in this case) U.S companies and individuals inside the U.S (not to be confused with the sub-set: GNP, just those goods and services produced by US companies around the world).

Per Capita Income, though related generally, has little or nothing to do with GDP. Look at the most recent 'productivity' numbers released, which showed the American worker being more "productive" than ever. Why? The major increase in productivity wasn't the number of 'units' produced, but that the average wage paid for labor went down 1% on a real basis, making the COST of producing the same number of units lower.

The power of compounding is a wonderous thing. It can be applied to almost everything. Including our national debt. If a policy were enacted that lowered GDP by 1%, but lowered our deficit by MORE than 1%, wouldn't that be a positive increase in our overall economy??

Re: Exponential growth!
 

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That of course is a good thing. However, there seems to be quite a lot of evidence that even current usage of many resources (such as fresh water and fish) is unsustainable.

And then of course we have China and India. You don't think they'd like to raise their level of use a bit?

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The human race will become extinct looooong before we run out of fresh water. It is not even close. I will let others elaborate.

Re: GDP?
 

Per capita income and per capita production are closely correlated. Almost identical, especially over long periods of time. If you do a regression, I'm sure you'll find this to be true.

As for the last paragraph, not sure what you are smoking. Only a crazy liberal could think of economic welfare in terms of its effect on the federal budget.

Re: Exponential growth!
 

I belive you need to read up on things.

Or else you know about a nuclear war I havn't heard of yet.

Re: Exponential growth!
 

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That of course is a good thing. However, there seems to be quite a lot of evidence that even current usage of many resources (such as fresh water and fish) is unsustainable.

And then of course we have China and India. You don't think they'd like to raise their level of use a bit?

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The human race will become extinct looooong before we run out of fresh water. It is not even close. I will let others elaborate.

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I think they may well happen at the same time.

Re: GDP?
 

I suppose being an economist by training, I look at the entire picture, rather than the part that fits my worldview.

How in the world does the Federal Budget NOT affect economic welfare?? Particularly in light of the massive debt, being added to on a daily basis? Put into microeconomic terms, is YOUR personal economic welfare NOT better off when you lower your monthly debt payments??

Does Federal spending, such as highway funds, building projects, military bases and welfare not ADD to the overall economy (at least in the areas that the $ are spent?

Re: Exponential growth!
 

Do you even know where fresh water comes from? I believe YOU need to research the hydrological cycle then come back here and tell me how we are running out of water on the planet.