Humans aren't single cell organisms. We are self-aware organisms, arguably more intelligent than any other organism we ourselves have ever encountered. There are very apparent downsides to the benefits we are reaping, but for some reason we are incapable of acting as one in the interest of all, and instead seem to prioritize acting for ourselves, seemingly incapable of making the connection that the detriment of all will, in the end, also be the detriment of ourselves.

The economy functions in order to provide services to as many people as possible. In fact, with the marriage of state and business of today, the output is optimized to extract as much as possible and distribute to people beyond what can be realistically consumed. Our metric is growth of economic activity alone, and thus to detriment to long-term sustainability, prudent management of resources and effective outcomes of economic output.