The participants in the Second American Experiment have differing views of the First Experiment. Some... think it was a noble and brilliant experiment that is no longer sustainable. Others... think it was ignoble and wrong-headed from the start.... But the larger point – and the point that concerns us in this book – is that all participants in the Second Experiment are convinced that the First Experiment is no longer wise. Here are some of the questions they've been asking:

Beyond economic growth. What are the long-term consequences of an ever-expanding economic pie? Aren't they rather, um, scary – especially if everybody on Earth wants to live as we do? - New Options for America (1991)