Rather than making a dry point about economic growth rates, Marshall was making a deep statement about human nature: we want more. We do not get satisfied at any level of affluence or consumption. Instead, even as we grow comparatively rich, we continue to want more. We might not even know exactly what we desire next—these are the “wants growing up in” us—but some clever innovator or entrepreneur is going to help us realize what those wants are and offer them to satisfy them, for a price. In doing so, it’s reasonable to assume that some of the planet’s finite natural resources are going to be
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