Corporations big and small are after growth, year in year out and then something like this happens;
“Our best guess is that the economic disruption related to the coronavirus will cost the world economy over $280 billion in the first quarter of this year,” said Capital Economics. “That would mean that global GDP will not grow in quarter-on-quarter terms for the first time since 2009.”
Is it all worth it? You decide…
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Governments, corporations, nations and investors are obsessed with growth. I know, I know it’s how wealth is created, how jobs exist and the fear that accompanies growth is not to be underestimated.
Every single day, news broadcasters are searching for stories to let us know how well or how bad we are doing with growth in our economy in the country of our residence.
And there’s absolutely nothing you and I can do about growth.
The decision is out of our hands. It totally depends how well the people that sell stuff are doing at creating more great stuff that we think we need, but really we do not.
Scott Galloway professor at NYU describes this brilliantly.
He say that the four horsemen, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google all appeal to different parts of our bodies.
Google appeals to our brain, Facebook to our hearts, Amazon to our stomachs/guts and Apple to our reproductive system.
In the case of growth all these companies are totally obsessed by it and their investors definitely are.
Let’s just take one of those, Amazon. Amazon is growing at an alarming rate and grabbing marketshare, share value and all the products in the world that can be sold via the web. They even own all the logistics now to bring you those products to your front door faster then anyone else.
We likely have 10–100 times more stuff than we actually need in our homes, but we keep buying more stuff and because it can be delivered faster, we are happy to buy more of it. Our stomachs/guts to buy more stuff is growing exponentially each year and Amazon knows this.
Growth might be an obsession in the world economies, but for sure the stuff that you own doesn’t need to grow any larger at all. More than likely you can feed yourself and your family for at least 90 days on all the food that sits in your store cupboards and not feel hungry.
The only growth we need is the growth in our thinking, the growth in our emotional intelligence and the growth in helping out the more unfortunate people in our society who have been dealt a tough hand.
Happy consuming!