The views expressed in this article represent the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, its staff, or its board of directors.
Tune into your favorite news source, and it won’t take long to find an article championing degrowth as the solution to your pick of problems—be it climate change, inequality, or urban sprawl. These voices, often tinged with NIMBYism (not in my backyard) masking self-interest as community concern, argue that scaling back economic activity will save us.
Yet, the recently announced 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion, and Peter Howitt highlights that innovation and creative destruction, where new technologies replace outdated ones, drive long-term economic growth and better living standards. Growth is not the villain it’s made out to be. It is the key to unlocking economic vitality and social progress for Chattanooga. We owe our city’s current vibrancy to past growth and halting that engine isn’t the answer to our challenges. Growth undeniably brings change. We must evolve alongside it, overcoming our natural tendency to cling to the comfort of the familiar, often overlooking those who desperately need economic growth to not only survive but truly thrive…