roductive capacity. This I believe is the essential theory of the origins of economic growth.Reducing Economic GrowthNow I want to take this and use it to understand why the economic growth in the United States today has been cut to half of what it was 100 years ago. The second part of my paper will now focus on how to reduce the rate of economic growth. Why do I want to reduce the rate of economic growth? I don’t want to reduce the rate of economic growth I hope that is understood. I ask that question in order to clarify my position and state that the research for the duration of the paper is for the purpose of exposition. By coming at it this way one can easily understand what has caused the rate of economic growth to decline and it is very simple to just say just do the opposite if you want economic growth to increase.According to Buechner the most fundamental direct way to reduce the economic rate of growth is to divert productive capacity from adding capacity to producing consumer goods. (Recording) Diverting productive capacity, anything you can do that can redirect productive capacity away from adding capacity to instead producing consumer goods. How can you do that? Hazlitt states the practical way of doing that, which is being used today, is to generate a net increase in demand for consumer goods. (190) In order to achieve this and make it work you need to some how create an additional demand for consumer goods that doesn’t take away from any other consumer goods. A net increase in the demand for consumer goods means additional revenues, funds, and sales flowing into those consumer goods firms; then these firms could turn around and use those monetary flows to buy machines, add factories, and add capacity. These are firms are now in position to compete away the labor, equipment, and other resources away from the firms that are adding capacity. Well how can you generate a net increase in the demand for consumer goods...
