If you have a company in a small town and everything is paid for and the size of the town isnt growing or changing, you actually do not need to grow. There is a company in Leadville, Colorado called “Melanzana”. They make technical hoodies - they’re pretty good. They actively shrank their business by closing their online storefront to reduce demand and reduce the burden of keeping up with that demand.
HOWEVER, if you have a business that is plugged into a larger marketplace and you have investors or have growing rents, etc. your investors expect a return on their investment and your growing costs need to be addressed so the only option is to grow to keep up.
Super interesting topic when you contextualize within a closed, limited, physical space. And by “super interesting” I mean dystopian.
If you aren’t armed and prepared to defend yourself and your community, you are just gathering resources and slaves for the people that are armed and want your stuff and want to turn you into slaves or corpses.