Your entire analysis is based on your stated belief that: “Our economy requires growth. Without it, hard times will follow.”

That is true but one needs to understand why it is true and that there is something we can do to make it not true. It is not an inherent feature of the real economy that creates the growth imperative; it is a feature of the monetary economy.

The Usury Conjecture in a nutshell

The central banking, interest-based, debt money system that is dominant around the world today is neither sustainable, nor stable, nor fair. The creation of money based on bank lending at interest creates a debt-growth imperative that drives artificial economic growth as borrowers compete with one another to acquire enough money from the always insufficient pool of money to service their “loans.”

It is that system that is the driver of the growth imperative, it is the abundance of cheap fossil fuel energy has been its enabler, but now the limits to growth are being reached and nature is the brake.

Any theory in opposition to the usury conjecture must provide an alternative explanation of why the total debt in the world continues to grow exponentially at a much faster rate that any measure of real economic growth or population growth.

If you would like to see a copy of my entire white paper on the Usury Conjecture just let me know.

I am confident that it is possible for us to achieve a steady state economy that is capable of providing the entire present global population with a dignified life.