Changing the economy:inner versus outer growth

Anyone who has eyes to see can observe that humanity has gotten itself into a serious structural crisis.
I am not speaking of the current financial crisis but of a permanent crisis in the real economy with far greater scope.

Our economic system is simply based on growth. Before, that has never been a problem. Humanity has historically been rather insignificant compared to the mondial ecosystem we live in. There was always room to spare and more oil to find.

But that situation has already changed and is still changing rapidly. We have created technologies that can process our natural resources at appalling rates. We are now clearly beginning to see that those resources are structurally limited.

The combination of traditional growth based economics and accelerating technological capabilities will inevitably lead to cannibalisation of our own planet. It is a simple mathematical outcome. If we go on like we have done before we will not last this century.

The root problem is that human beings are preprogrammed to seek improvement relative to their competitors. Those competitors mainly being other humans, such preprogramming will express itself in a growth based economy. We need to take such predispositions into account when envisioning a new economic structure.

Clearly, such a new economy must also be based on the fulfillment of those evolutionarily preprogrammed needs in order to be compatible with basic human nature.

So, why not restructure the economy for another kind of growth. But this time growth must be directed inward. I am envisioning a concept of growth that is expressed not as increased production but as increased efficiency. Creating the same with less.

The key to establishing such an economic system is to transform the indicators of economic success so that greater efficiency is rewarded while greater production is at best mildly discouraged.

A car manufacturers yearly report should reflect in jubilant terms how the company has managed to reduce consumption of raw materials, energy and even labour instead of advertising how many more cars have left the factory.
It is all about building the economic controls around 'less is more'

We need to identify our basic primary resources(energy, labour) and insure that using them in the production process becomes sufficiently expensive. As a last resource we may even need to establish maximum production levels of certain items.

If a company introduces a new system of automation and fires a thousand employees, the current economic system considers that a bad thing because those workers become unemployed. All kinds of social problem ensue.
Under the new economy such a development would actually be profitable. You can reallocate skilled labour to another task. You may also be able to save on commuting time and costs. The bottom line is simply that using fewer resources and manhours on reaching the same production does constitute an increase in efficiency.
The central problem is how to change society so that it no longer frowns on (temporary)unemployment but recognizes it as the opportunity it can mean.

Products should be designed for longevity.
Why shouln't a car be good for fifteen or more years of heavy duty use? Why replace an entire computer every three years if you can just exchange the processor?
Why not manufacture entire apartments in a factory just like you build cars?

I am not saying restructuring the economy in such a way will be easy. But if mankind is to survive I believe it to be essential.