>So have we avoided it, or are we just delaying it? ... Perhaps the next crash just gets to be harder as a result.
In fact, this is exactly what West suggests (just not in this relatively puffy treatment of his ideas).
He's compared societal progress to a series of treadmills. In order to keep up with the necessary economic growth rate the treadmills are constantly getting faster (evolutionary progress) and we periodically have to jump from one treadmill to another (revolutionary innovation) and we must switch treadmills at an ever-increasing pace (shortening technology cycles). The problem of course being that you eventually have a heart attack.
In fact, this is exactly what West suggests (just not in this relatively puffy treatment of his ideas).
He's compared societal progress to a series of treadmills. In order to keep up with the necessary economic growth rate the treadmills are constantly getting faster (evolutionary progress) and we periodically have to jump from one treadmill to another (revolutionary innovation) and we must switch treadmills at an ever-increasing pace (shortening technology cycles). The problem of course being that you eventually have a heart attack.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFFVSvAr7Wc