Growth mindset
The Russian River - Growth at the expense of experience quality?
In the spirit of becoming a doctor, lawyer or historian after reading a post, cartoon or meme, I am now an economist because I’m partway through a book.
I’m not wholesale convinced the book is a feasible pathway to economic utopia, but it made me look at some contemporary issues Alaskans are facing pertaining to everything from fisheries to eating out. The following examples are not from the book, just where my mind went when contemplating the thesis.
The world of business economics, interest rates, GDP is well beyond me, but the idea that growth is always necessary and always good, now scares me as it pertains to the resources used to achieve that end.
Growth is good but within certain context. Growth at the expense of quality means waste or products with self-destruct mechanisms that engage seven minutes after the warranty expires.
Corporations spend tremendous amount of time and money marketing food that will make people unhealthy and sick, which provides a viable growth model for the misery industry which then provides a booming market for pharmaceutical industries. Given the connections and conflicts of interest between the Food and Drug Administration and companies in the “food” industry it looks almost intentional. Memes about healthy people being a patient lost, while oversimplified and unfair to caring, ethical, professional doctors, resonates enough to be shared.
Speaking of food, you know how a restaurant with a chef that cooks is different than a restaurant with a cook who makes do with the cheapest ingredients he or she is allowed to order? I think about that when I enter a grocery store in the Lower 48 and smell the seafood from the automatic doors. It’s not being an Alaskan food snob, it’s recognizing the marketing of low-quality seafood and people who just don’t know any better.
