The purpose of this post is to raise a question: What should the next phase of human development look like? Should the focus still be on economic growth, or should it shift to something more fundamental, such as overall life satisfaction?
Economists are well-positioned to contemplate this question. Unfortunately, the term "economist" seems to imply that economic growth is the primary focus of our discipline. It can be challenging for some of us to acknowledge that economic growth is just one of many dimensions in which society develops. Cultural, spiritual, communal, and relational developments might also be important.
My intuition is that, instead of viewing the current economic slowdown as a "problem," the real issue might be our lack of understanding of how to better live in a slow-growth economy that still has a high level of material abundance. (Growth is bound to slow down at some point for any economy.) The world already produces more than enough to feed everyone. Much of the suffering, excess and conflicts result from ignorance, greed and jealousy. People need more of the basic things like understanding, compassion, security, justice, respect, understanding, friendship, love, and honor—elements that have often escaped economic modeling.
I think this is an urgent topic, perhaps even an existential one. How to optimally advance a society in dimensions other than economics? We need to figure out the answer before countries run out of people.