during the Great Acceleration, from 1950-2000, the pie slice increased by 5% per year. Basically, the average human alive in 2015 was 14 times wealthier in material stuff than a person living in the year 1800. And the USA at $50,000 per capita GDP has over 49 times higher income of the average human in 1800. 151 The unbelievable power in fossil fuels, combined with human creativity and increased demand for things, has caused a very sharp increase in wealth – as measured by stuff- in the last two centuries. Prosperity measured by growth in “stuff” is a very recent achievement that distinguishes the last ten or so generations from the other 299,800 years of human ancestors. TaaL: Who doesn’t enjoy growing? All things considered, for a human, it’s more convenient to be five feet tall than two feet tall. Then again, if a human had some condition that meant she never stopped growing, it would then be a tragic thing. There would be massive organ failure, skeletal collapse, and death long before she reached 12 feet tall. You actually have a name for cells which lose the ability to stop growing: cancer . But human economists assure us that the size of your economies can grow forever, because they believe they have discovered the magic formula: demand . It is believed, by those now making the decisions for your nation, that human “demand” is what creates resources and energy. Since humans are unlikely to stop demanding stuff, it must follow that infinite resources and energy will be automatically created thereby, and so you can have permanent economic growth, more wealth, more stuff, and more fun, forever! While a worldview like that might not be out of place for something like a baby goat pushing on an udder, it’s amazing that in your societies it’s no t only considered to be a deep scientific discipline worthy of pseudo-Nobel prizes, but the worldview most important to the running of a contemporary nation. There’s no real mystery to economic growth: it has been a side - effect of the massive net energy infusion of the carbon pulse, which has increased every year for several hundred. As human societies crest that fossil carbon roller-coaster and start seeing declining net energy each year, growth will end, and human economists will presumably become a lot less popular (if no less funny). The Bottom Line: The average human is 14 times wealthier (measured in stuff) as our recent ancestors, due to radical “growth” in energy availability over the last century. This is temporary.
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