• really great diary.

• is your explanation of why capitalism requires growth, which i think is expressed in the paragraph --

Capitalism is a system of finance... A part of this year's profits are plowed back into the firm for expansion, or the promise of future growth is used as way to attract further investment.

-- is that a "standard"/"conventional" explanation for the claim that capitalism requires growth?  (e.g. is it something that is taught in economics classes or textbooks?)  if so, does does this interpretation/explanation have a name?

• i hope i am not misrecalling, but i believe someone here once wrote, a long time ago, that growth in itself is not the problem, but rather the increasingly unsustainable consumption of resources that historically accompanies growth (not to mention other, albeit non-intrinsic and/or irreparable, side-effects of growth such as pollution and socioeconomic inequality.)  is it conceivable that economic growth can be made sustainable if growth with a sustainable consumption of resources is made possible?*

• There are no capitalist enterprises that are run democratically, even in the western democracies.

are for-profit cooperatives "run democratically"?  can they be considered a form of "capitalist enterprises"?

* i know -- and agree with, as far as I can understand it -- ChrisCook's position why capitalistic growth is not sustainable because it is based on debt-based money, which ultimately is itself not sustainable, but i am putting that issue aside for now.

Cynicism is intellectual treason.