Individual opportunity for well being should be our national objective, not economic growth.
International value surveys, that cover about 90 percent of the worlds population, clearly show that additional per capita growth, in economically advanced countries, has minimal affect on increased well being. Increased freedom, tolerance and equality are more important.
Human expansion is constrained by the capacity of natures abundance. Continuous exponential growth is simply not possible. Economic growth occurs when natural resources are converted into more items useful to man.
Beyond the constraints of nature, our society is being ruined by the pre-occupation with consumption. We are teaching our children to cheat and are borrowing from the worlds poor so that we can consume more.