How so? Japan's been trying for decades to stoke growth, is unable to, and has (IMHO) a pretty high standard of living. Correct me? Abenomics is fairly recent, but you can't create demand in a country with a declining population.

EDIT: Stop optimizing for GDP. Optimize for quality of life.

This works in the short run, but the Japanese have been in an economic hole for a long time. They are printing money to keep assets afloat, but this wont work forever and they know it. The whole thing is fake, and fake doenst last forever.

It's lasted what, 20 years so far? You say it won't work forever; we can't just reproduce ourselves out of the problem (by encouraging policies the promote couples to have more children).

At some point, we will decide growth is over and isn't coming back. It feels like we're close to that point. And good! You can have a great quality of life without neverending growth.