For years, Americans have felt squeezed by rising costs – housing, childcare, groceries, healthcare – with no easy solutions in sight. Political responses have been predictable: blaming corporations, suggesting price controls, and election-year promises. But these tactics miss the core issue: how to genuinely make life easier for people to build, work, and thrive in the U.S.
Historically, the answer was simple: growth. A larger, more productive economy, cheaper energy, new technologies, and broader participation. Growth wasn’t a cure-all, but it made every other problem manageable.
However, starting in the 1970s, this consensus fractured. Economic growth slowed, inequality increased, and concerns about the environment grew. An anti-growth mindset took hold, questioning the relentless pursuit of “more.” While these concerns were valid – the environmental impact of fossil fuels, past exclusions from economic booms, the emptiness of consumerism – the pendulum swung too far.
The U.S. inadvertently created a low-growth, high-friction system where even basic problems become harder to solve. This is why sustainable growth needs to be reconsidered. Instead of fighting over a fixed pie, we need to expand it. Not growth at any cost, but smart growth.
What Does Smart Growth Look Like?
This project, “The Case for Growth,” will explore how to unlock potential in key areas:
- Cities: How to overcome policies that exclude families and make housing more accessible.
- Energy: The potential of clean energy abundance, from vertical farming to advanced climate solutions.
- Productivity: How artificial intelligence can break the prolonged productivity slump.
- Sustainability: How to address unsustainable practices like car dependency and excessive meat consumption.
Experts will demonstrate that growth can coexist with policies to prevent climate change.
Why Growth is Essential
In an era of zero-sum politics, where one person’s gain often means another’s loss, we need to revive the idea of positive-sum progress. Growth won’t fix everything, but without it, large-scale solutions become impossible. This project aims to reframe growth as a serious strategy for affordability, sustainability, and abundance.
Without economic expansion, our most pressing problems – from housing crises to climate change – will only become more intractable.
This series is supported by a grant from Arnold Ventures, with full editorial independence maintained by Vox.
