Stubborn Attachments

Tyler Cowen's moral case for prioritizing economic growth — arguing that sustainable growth is the primary ethical obligation because of its compounding effect on future welfare.

The growth imperative: Cowen argues that sustained economic growth, compounded over centuries, has a larger effect on human welfare than almost any other policy variable — because small differences in growth rates become enormous over time. Moral implication: we should give growth a near-lexicographic priority in policy, constrained only by basic rights. The 'Wealth Plus' concept: growth in sustainable GDP, but also environmental quality, leisure, and other contributors to human welfare. A rare economic-ethics hybrid that takes intergenerational welfare seriously without embracing full longtermism.