I have also argued that continued growth—while
ecologically feasible up to a point set by ultimate thermodynamic
and technological limits—may generate
social costs that exceed the private benefits in affluent
societies where the resources exist to meet people’s
basic needs unless specific policies are implemented
to address these impacts. This point is supported by
data on trends in the Index of Sustainable Economic
Welfare, subjective well-being, and a wide variety of
social and environmental indicators. In the pursuit of growth, our society has told itself that our social and
environmental values are too expensive to afford. The
result is a systematic imbalance that, as John Kenneth
Galbraith once argued,44 has brought into being
a world of “private opulence and public squalor”
through an overemphasis on growth, markets, and our
identities as consumers that has crowded out our human
roles as citizens, community members, caretakers,
and friends.