Not sure I'd call myself financially literate, but I do have an MBA and computer science degree for whatever that's worth.

The short answer to that is it's necessary to encourage people to invest. $10,000,0000 is only a meaningful figure if it is spendable ... which means that people want to receive that money and others want to spend it. In order for someone with excess money to spend it, they need to be incentivized to do so. If they get no return on their money, then why would they spend? If on the other hand, they can grow their money by spending it, they will. That's why, for example, a VC would take the risk of spending it on a startup (or someone more risk averse would spend on bonds). If you're just stashing money under your mattress, then the economy comes to a halt. For the most part, people don't need $10,000,000 to live a happy life so the excess money they have will not be spent unless there is a growth opportunity to use it.

Having said that, I agree with many others on here that "growth for the sake of growth" is dangerous and I'd like to see more focus on happiness (rather than money) and sustainability rather than growth. The growth spurt we had in the 20th century is likely not going to be reproduced in this century (the industrial revolution is a rare and unusual event). We need to find some way to keep this world moving forward in a low growth era, but I don't necessarily know how that will happen.

+ Buying a ticket to ride the bus is 'consumption'. + The gas is 'consumption'. + Buying medical devices, medical equipment, paying for doctors - is all 'consumption'. + Food, clothing, internet, your mobile - it's all 'consumption' + Almost everything you buy is 'consumption' + Consumption drives most of the remaining parts of the economy - so no consumption, no B2B = no economy.

+ You will not have a $100K job of consumers stop buying things, you will have a $1K a year job.