Economic growth: business as usual despite dire warnings

It seems that the majority of people, economists and policy makers still view economic growth as the holy grail of social well-being. Whatever the news may be on other fronts, first and foremost the economy must be strong; and the way to ensure economic strength is by encouraging consumerism.

Headlines like "Weak consumption hits growth" are not surprising because growth and consumption are always a concern:

Taiwan's economy grew at a slower-than-expected rate in the first quarter as lackluster private consumption offset robust exports, a government official said yesterday.

(...)"Private consumption is much more sluggish than we expected, primarily because of a sharp drop in automobile sales," Hsu said.

According to statistics compiled by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, sales of new cars in Taiwan dropped by nearly 25 percent in the first quarter from the same period a year ago.

Unfortunately, our society is not in the mindset of adopting Plan B, to rescue our planet and our civilization. We still want to conduct business as usual as if there were no such a thing as global warming or other impeding natural disasters.

Also, it's interesting but sad that they singled out car sales as if Peak Oil was not a concern or our cities not crowded with automobiles or polluted enough.