Ross Gittens has an interesting op-ed on economic growth in the Sydney Morning Herald. He says that for nearly all economists, business people and politicians the need to maximise the growth of the economy is a self-evident truth and should not be questioned. Those who do so, eg., Clive Hamilton, are treated with scorn by economic rationalists and libertarians, even though economic growth is commonly seen as a means to achieve the good life, rather than an end in itself.In short, there's more to life than money, and the more than is usually understood in terms of wellbeing.

Surprisingly, the 2020 Summit failed to question economic growth as an end in itself. One of their new ideas was to try harder to maximise economic growth---to increase "gross domestic product per capita so that Australia is among the top five countries in the world on this measure, with strong, stable economic growth."

The economic section of the final report of the 2020 Summit has the following ambitions:

Australia should be the best place in the world to live and do business. This will require urgent action to increase economic capacity through the creation of a truly national, efficient, sustainable and inclusive economy supported by seamless regulation. We should set national goals for Australian prosperity in which all Australians share:
• Increasing GDP per capita so that Australia is among the top 5 countries in the world on this measure, with strong, stable economic growth; and
• Inflation between 2% and 3%.

Nothing about wellbeing there. The target is given and the emphasis is placed on the implication for meeting the target for economic growth in the coming decades--- world-class infrastructure.

Is the failure to question this growth fetish in terms of the wellbeing of the population a failure of intellectual nerve?