It's an addiction to growth for growth's sake. You cannot build a healthy society on unlimited, exponential growth because that is mathematically impossible.

The whole boom and bust cycle is tremendously destructive to the average person; tremendously destructive to the environment; and profitable only to a tiny number of capitalists who can swoop in and acquire everything for pennies on the dollar during the bust times.

We are seeing this in America on a national scale right now. The stock markets boom even as the economy collapses, beecause at the end of the pandemic, the Fortune 500 will own everything, forever.