Simon's Lecture

I found one of the most intriguing points made by Simon was that Capitalism threatens its own means of production. This is something that has an undercurrent of common sense to it, but it is a common sense that we often fail to think about. Simon described it in a succinct way that made me consider the idea in a new light. The idea that capitalism is constantly chasing its own tail, trying to get ahead of itself is a very fitting picture. We want to cut down as many trees as possible to use for work, but are at a loss when we do not have any new (old growth) trees to use. Or by variation we want to conserve green space so that we aren’t living in a concrete jungle yet we all want so much space that there isn’t enough to go around. This argument is very much like the treadmill idea we are running and running trying to get a head, but the idea of its threat to itself is one that Simon used to bring the argument to the next level. My question would be what other examples can you come up with to portray the delicate balance between production and destruction?