Der Wachstumszwang

For a long time, economic growth was associated with a promise of a better future, a promise that largely came true. However, this promise has increasingly turned into a compulsion. For a growing number of people in wealthy countries, more material wealth is no longer a credible promise of an even better future life. As a result, growth is hardly justified with this argument anymore. Instead, we hear that a country like Germany falls behind other nations with low or stagnant growth, becomes an unattractive business location, loses its innovative capacity, or sheds jobs. We must grow to remain economically successful, even if we do not want more material wealth! Mathias Binswanger's book illustrates where this compulsion for growth originates. Ultimately, it is based on the fact that companies can only make profits over a longer period if there is also GDP growth. And profits, in turn, are necessary for companies to survive in the long term. Recently, this has increasingly become a compulsion: We must grow to remain economically successful, even if we do not want more material wealth! This is precisely the compulsion for growth!.