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July 28, 2009
And so we have a somewhat sardonic representation of what four decades of human 'progress' here on planet Earth means:
Martin Rowson
'Tis time to dump the word 'progress' me thinks. It now stands for a heap of ruins---caused by the pursuit of economic growth as an end in itself, or for its own sake.
I appreciate that the utilitarians often say that the end of progress is happiness, but they more often than not reduce happiness to prosperity or wealth creation in practice. Their principle of the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people more or less greater income. It is better not to be poor or suffer from poverty.
So mining at Broken Hill by BHP is good because the benefits of wealth outweigh the harms of mining deaths, diseases caused by dust, and blighted urban landscapes. Australia, according to the reasoning of neoclassical economists, has a comparative advantage, relative to the nations of east Asia, in hosting materials-processing industries that generate damaging environmental wastes.
Consequently, Broken Hill has been, and still is, a town dominated by the mining industry that has taken the city from boom time to bust. Today, it is bust.
The mineral resources in the Broken Hill area have dwindled, the city is experiencing a swiftly shrinking population, it has an ageing population and the city’s many pubs continue to close down. Tourism has become increasingly important to the city's economy. Since less than 700 work in the mining industry, the city is reinventing itself as a heritage city and as an artistic centre.
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