Beneficial end goals in contemporary social life

Economic growth and development are often viewed as beneficial end goals in contemporary social life. Growth in the 21st century, however, appears to come with costs. Two of those costs – growing inequality and environmental degradation – are especially worrisome insofar as they have the potential to undermine, destabilize, or dismantle the very relations, logics, and justifications that uphold our modern economic and political life-systems. Bearing in mind the costs, and in light of what you read in Jason Hickel’s chapter, how do you view growth and development? Do you believe our contemporary systems or society should pursue growth and how? Can growth be environmentally and socially sustainable? Are there alternatives? Explain.