Pioneering economist says our obsession with growth must end

He explains that "ultimate means" are necessarily constrained by entropy. He equivocates on what the ultimate ends are, but professes his own Christian belief in a creator [sic]. Unfortunately, he ends his argument by doing the very thing of which he accuses his non-religious counterparts -- accusing them of sticking up their noses at religious people, and positing a ridiculous straw-man: "They look down their noses at religious people who say there’s a creator: That’s unscientific. What’s the scientific view? We won the cosmic lottery. Come on."

Otherwise, I'm on-board with sustainable living. I think our current economic model is doomed, and our ancestors will suffer for our excess. Accounting for ecological cost and implementing tariffs for those countries that don't seems like a reasonable step.

The biggest problem is the rich have created a system in which people's future (retirement) is basically linked to "the market" growing over their lifetime. And the hopes that if they get lucky enough with the market they can retire early (or at all). This system of course is built 100% on governments/employers not wanting to guarantee financial security of elders and offload the risk to the individual. Also the rich have a massive incentive for everyone to "invest" (cough) and drive prices up, because the rich benefit insanely more by market movements than a standard person does.

Maybe the system will explode in our lifetime, maybe not. But all this insanity focus of growth, profits, etc with no genuine regard to real social issues (providing basic stability to people whether it be healthcare, housing, food, childcare) is so sick I can barely even think about it. And there's almost nothing to do about it- that's the way things currently "work" and it seems insurmountable to do anything about it.