It reminded me of this[1] recent Tyler Cowen article that is basically arguing that France and other European countries will have long-term negative growth, mostly because they are over-regulated and hence cannot adapt to changes.
Growth for growth's sake is an irrational obsession. If people's standards of living are satisfactory, technology leads to reduced consumption without compromising standard of living, and individuals lead a good life, what more is there to it?
they still haven't discarded the requirement that everyone needs a job to have an acceptable standard of living, so lack of growth leading to unemployment is definitely a problem
In areas where regulations often don't make sense, people will simply stop observing them as well. This can undermine respect for the law in some cases. But in others you just end up with weird curiosities on the law books.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/upshot/lesson-from-old-ind...