<description>&lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;A new study debunks depopulation panic. For decades economists have perpetuated the false narrative, “If population growth reverses and begins to decline, the economy is doomed.” This belief has so frequently been repeated by economists, politicians, business people and the public, that it is generally taken as gospel. Psychologists have characterized the phenomenon as the &lt;em&gt;illusory-truth effect,&lt;/em&gt; or believing something to be true if it’s repeated often enough, even if it is false.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;For the first time in modern history, a handful of countries are witnessing actual population declines. The data is now available to separate reality from what has heretofore been baseless theory.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;An October 2023 study conducted by Professors Theodore Lianos, Anastasia Pseiridis and Nicholas Tsounis, published in &lt;em&gt;Humanities and Social Sciences Communications&lt;/em&gt; and featured on &lt;a href= "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02223-7"&gt;&lt;span class= "s2"&gt;Nature.com&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; examined volumes of economic data of twenty countries experiencing population declines. To their surprise, virtually every country with a contracting population enjoyed reduced unemployment, increased wages, and a larger real GDP per capita!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Guest-host Terry Spahr, Executive Director of &lt;a href="http://www.earthovershoot.org/"&gt;&lt;span class= "s2"&gt;Earth Overshoot&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;, speaks with the study’s authors to illuminate their findings that dispel the firmly entrenched false notion that endless growth is the only path to economic salvation.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Guests:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Theodore Lianos &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Professor,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s1"&gt;Athens University of Economics and Business&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Anastasia Pseiridis&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Assistant Professor of Economics,&lt;/span&gt; &lt;span class="s1"&gt;Department of Economics and Regional Development&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Panteion University&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Regular co-hosts Dave Gardner and Stephanie Gardner are taking a break from the podcast while Dave runs for U.S. President this year. If you would like to guest-host a podcast, email us with details of the episode you would like to produce and host.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;&lt;br /&gt; MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Declining Population and GDP Growth&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s3"&gt;&lt;a href= "https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02223-7" target= "_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02223-7&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Summary published at The Overpopulation Project&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s3"&gt;&lt;a href= "https://overpopulation-project.com/declining-population-and-gdp-growth/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;https://overpopulation-project.com/declining-population-and-gdp-growth/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Earth Overshoot&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span class="s3"&gt;&lt;a href= "https://www.earthovershoot.org/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;https://www.earthovershoot.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;Dave Gardner's Campaign&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="https://davetheplanet2024.com" target="_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;https://davetheplanet2024.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt; &lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Give Us Feedback:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;ul&gt; &lt;li class="p1"&gt;Record a voice message for us to play on the podcast: 719-402-1400&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li class="p1"&gt;Send an email to podcast at growthbusters.org&lt;/li&gt; &lt;/ul&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;em&gt;The GrowthBusters&lt;/em&gt; theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. &lt;a href="%22" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;span class= "s1"&gt;https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;span class= "s1"&gt;&lt;a href= "https://carlosjones.com/"&gt;https://carlosjones.com/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12pt;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society’s growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture’s obsession with, and pursuit of, growth.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;span style="font-size: 12pt;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described "energy nerd," Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law &amp; Policy.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;Join the GrowthBusters online community&lt;br /&gt; &lt;span style= "font-size: 12pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;a href= "https://growthbusters.groups.io/" target="_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;https://growthbusters.groups.io/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;em&gt;GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth&lt;/em&gt; – free on YouTube&lt;br /&gt; &lt;span class="s2"&gt;&lt;a href="https://youtu.be/_w0LiBsVFBo" target= "_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;https://youtu.be/_w0LiBsVFBo&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p8"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Join the conversation on Facebook&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.facebook.com/GrowthBustersPodcast/" target= "_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;https://www.facebook.com/GrowthBustersPodcast/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Make a donation to support this non-profit project.&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="https://www.growthbusters.org/donate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;https://www.growthbusters.org/donate/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p8"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Archive of &lt;em&gt;GrowthBusters&lt;/em&gt; podcast episodes&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.growthbusters.org/podcast/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;http://www.growthbusters.org/podcast/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p3"&gt;&lt;span class="s1"&gt;Subscribe to GrowthBusters email updates&lt;br /&gt; &lt;a href="https://lp.constantcontact.com/su/umptf6w/signup" target= "_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;https://lp.constantcontact.com/su/umptf6w/signup&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p2"&gt;Explore the issues at &lt;a href= "http://www.growthbusters.org" target="_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;http://&lt;span class= "s3"&gt;www.growthbusters.org&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p3"&gt;&lt;span class="s4"&gt;&lt;a href= "https://www.youtube.com/user/Growthbuster" target="_blank" rel= "noopener"&gt;View the &lt;span class="s3"&gt;&lt;em&gt;GrowthBusters&lt;/em&gt; channel&lt;/span&gt; on YouTube&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p1"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Follow the podcast so you don't miss an episode:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href= "https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/paving-paradise/id1133125440?mt=2&amp;ls=1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;img class="alignnone wp-image-8519" src= "https://www.growthbusters.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Listen_on_Apple_Podcasts-120-tight-1-300x77.png" alt="Listen on Apple Podcasts" width="195" height= "50" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href= "https://open.spotify.com/show/3FzroAULEI2nOHLEcuDDjZ" target= "_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;img class="alignnone wp-image-8521" src= "https://www.growthbusters.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Listen-on-Spotify-badge-button-120-tight-1-300x103.png" alt="" width="146" height="50" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;a href= "https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cDovL2dyb3d0aGJ1c3RlcnMubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener"&gt;&lt;img class="alignnone wp-image-8522" src= "https://www.growthbusters.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/android-badge-120-high-300x77.png" alt="Subscribe on Android" width="194" height="50" /&gt;&lt;img src= "https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/show/123723/google_podcasts_badge2x.png" alt="" width="195" height="49" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p class="p2"&gt;&lt;span class="s3"&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>

GrowthBusters

Dave Gardner and Stephanie Gardner on sustainability

84: Strong Economy Begins With Shrinking Workforce

FEB 12, 202426 MIN
GrowthBusters

84: Strong Economy Begins With Shrinking Workforce

FEB 12, 202426 MIN

Description

A new study debunks depopulation panic. For decades economists have perpetuated the false narrative, “If population growth reverses and begins to decline, the economy is doomed.” This belief has so frequently been repeated by economists, politicians, business people and the public, that it is generally taken as gospel. Psychologists have characterized the phenomenon as the illusory-truth effect, or believing something to be true if it’s repeated often enough, even if it is false.

For the first time in modern history, a handful of countries are witnessing actual population declines. The data is now available to separate reality from what has heretofore been baseless theory.

An October 2023 study conducted by Professors Theodore Lianos, Anastasia Pseiridis and Nicholas Tsounis, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications and featured on Nature.com examined volumes of economic data of twenty countries experiencing population declines. To their surprise, virtually every country with a contracting population enjoyed reduced unemployment, increased wages, and a larger real GDP per capita!

Guest-host Terry Spahr, Executive Director of Earth Overshoot, speaks with the study’s authors to illuminate their findings that dispel the firmly entrenched false notion that endless growth is the only path to economic salvation.

Guests:

Theodore Lianos Professor, Athens University of Economics and Business

Anastasia PseiridisAssistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Regional DevelopmentPanteion University

Regular co-hosts Dave Gardner and Stephanie Gardner are taking a break from the podcast while Dave runs for U.S. President this year. If you would like to guest-host a podcast, email us with details of the episode you would like to produce and host.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Declining Population and GDP Growthhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-023-02223-7

Summary published at The Overpopulation Projecthttps://overpopulation-project.com/declining-population-and-gdp-growth/

Earth Overshoothttps://www.earthovershoot.org/

Dave Gardner's Campaign https://davetheplanet2024.com

 

Give Us Feedback:

  • Record a voice message for us to play on the podcast: 719-402-1400
  • Send an email to podcast at growthbusters.org

The GrowthBusters theme song was written and produced by Jake Fader and sung by Carlos Jones. https://www.fadermusicandsound.com/ https://carlosjones.com/

On the GrowthBusters podcast, we come to terms with the limits to growth, explore the joy of sustainable living, and provide a recovery program from our society’s growth addiction (economic/consumption and population). This podcast is part of the GrowthBusters project to raise awareness of overshoot and end our culture’s obsession with, and pursuit of, growth.

Dave Gardner directed the documentary GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth, which Stanford Biologist Paul Ehrlich declared “could be the most important film ever made.” Co-host, and self-described "energy nerd," Stephanie Gardner has degrees in Environmental Studies and Environmental Law & Policy.

Join the GrowthBusters online community https://growthbusters.groups.io/

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth – free on YouTube https://youtu.be/_w0LiBsVFBo

Join the conversation on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/GrowthBustersPodcast/ Make a donation to support this non-profit project. https://www.growthbusters.org/donate/

Archive of GrowthBusters podcast episodes http://www.growthbusters.org/podcast/

Subscribe to GrowthBusters email updates https://lp.constantcontact.com/su/umptf6w/signup

Explore the issues at http://www.growthbusters.org

View the GrowthBusters channel on YouTube

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