Who You Gonna Call? Growthbusters!

How many times have you heard that the only way we can simultaneously reduce unemployment and pay down debt is to “grow our way out”? One gets the idea that economic growth is the summum bonum, the greatest good that will bring all other goods with it.

A documentary that just came out doesn’t just take issue with this simplistic view; it argues the exact opposite. Growth — of our economy, our population, our consumption — is the problem.

The premise may seem hyperbolic, and the Ghostbuster-spoofing producer/director/writer/host, Dave Gardener, may seem unserious. But the film includes plenty of intellectual heavyweights, like Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Solow, National Resource Defense Council Co-Founder Gus Speth and former World Bank Chief Economist Herman Daly.

We haven’t watched the film yet, but screenings are scheduled all over the U.S. and Canada for the coming weeks. If you see it, let us know what you think.