schema_version: "1.0"

id: "FM-ECO-029"

title: "FM-ECO-029 — Growth Theater"

slug: "fm-eco-029-growth-theater"

type: "failure_mode"

status: "draft"

version: "0.1.0"

last_updated: "2026-06-19"

summary: "Growth Theater occurs when visible expansion, adoption, revenue, valuation, output, scale, user count, market reach, productivity, or activity is presented as economic success while the growth lacks sufficient capacity, delivery integrity, repair funding, local coherence, legitimacy, or durable value."

canonical_url: "/archive/failure-modes/registry/economy/fm-eco-029-growth-theater"

citation_id: "FM-ECO-029-v0-1-0"

canon:

tier: "registry"

state: "draft"

source: "UTS — Failure Modes Registry"

source_id: "FM-ECO-029"

legacy_ids:

• "FM-ECOX-027"

classification:

family: "failure-modes"

module: "economy"

module_group: "economy"

density: "advanced-reference"

audience:

• "UTS readers"
• "economic systems researchers"
• "scaling researchers"
• "cybernetics researchers"
• "restoration researchers"
• "justice researchers"
• "AI governance researchers"
• "platform researchers"
• "coherence researchers"
• "machine readers"

tags:

• "failure-modes"
• "economy"
• "growth-theater"
• "fm-eco-029-growth-theater"
• "fm-ecox-027-growth-theater"
• "growth"
• "scale"
• "valuation"
• "adoption"
• "success-proxy"
• "expansion"
• "hidden-debt"
• "pseudo-coherence"
• "coherence"

aliases:

• "Growth Theater"
• "Economic Growth Theater"
• "Expansion Theater"
• "Scale Theater"
• "Adoption Theater"
• "Valuation Theater"
• "Revenue Theater"
• "Productivity Theater"
• "Activity as Growth"
• "Visible Growth Without Coherence"

related:

laws:

• "Success Proxy Substitution"
• "Expansion Without Capacity"
• "Echo Inflation"
• "Narrative Dominance"
• "Risk Model Theater"
• "Hidden Debt Accumulation"
• "Forced Profit"
• "Repair Starvation"
• "Exported Economic Incoherence"
• "Pseudo-Coherence"
• "Goodhart Collapse"
• "Terminal Scaling Failure"

invariants:

• "Growth Must Preserve Coherence"
• "Expansion Must Carry Capacity"
• "Adoption Is Not Restoration"
• "Revenue Is Not Value Unless Burden Is Accounted"
• "Scale Must Include Repair Capacity"
• "Growth Must Improve Affected Nodes"
• "Visible Activity Must Not Substitute for Durable Value"

operators:

• "G — Gain"
• "Φ — Flow / Resource Movement"
• "O — Coherence"
• "H — Hidden Debt"
• "R — Restoration Capacity"
• "K — Constraint / Load"
• "Au — Auditability"
• "Ψ — Observation / Interface"
• "Γ — Selection"
• "Λ — Compatibility"
• "D — Damping"
• "BΣ — Boundary Integrity"
• "Τ — Trajectory / Time"

gates:

• "Growth Integrity Gate"
• "Capacity Gate"
• "Value Reality Gate"
• "Delivery Gate"
• "Repair Gate"
• "Local Coherence Gate"
• "Auditability Gate"
• "Hidden Debt Gate"
• "Legitimacy Gate"

diagnostics:

• "Growth Integrity"
• "Capacity Fit"
• "Value / Burden Fit"
• "Delivery Quality"
• "Repair Funding Fit"
• "Local Coherence"
• "Hidden Debt"
• "Valuation / Capacity Fit"
• "Auditability"
• "Affected-Node Improvement"

failure_modes:

• "FM-ECO-010 — Expansion Without Capacity"
• "FM-ECO-011 — Exported Economic Incoherence"
• "FM-ECO-017 — Echo Inflation"
• "FM-ECO-019 — Narrative Dominance"
• "FM-ECO-020 — Risk Model Theater"
• "FM-ECO-027 — Extraction Masking Instability"
• "FM-ECO-028 — Repair Starvation"
• "FM-ECO-032 — Pseudo-Coherent Economic Stability"
• "FM-CORE-003 — Success Proxy Substitution"
• "FM-C-018 — Goodhart Collapse"
• "FM-S-010 — Hidden Debt Explosion"
• "FM-S-017 — Terminal Scaling Failure"

restoration_arcs:

• "Growth Integrity Audit"
• "Capacity-Backed Growth Recalibration"
• "Value / Burden Accounting"
• "Adoption Quality Review"
• "Repair Funding Attachment"
• "Hidden Growth Debt Accounting"
• "Local Coherence Validation"
• "Valuation Grounding"
• "Expansion Throttling"
• "Durable Value Restoration"

modules:

• "Economy"
• "Scaling"
• "Cybernetics"
• "Restoration"
• "Justice"
• "AI Governance"
• "Diagnostics"
• "Platforms"
• "Meta-Theory"
• "Coherence"

navigation:

order: 1329

parent: "failure-modes"

visible: true

provenance:

created_from: "failure-mode-registry-production"

source_thread: "UTS Failure Modes Registry production"

source_file: "content/archive/failure-modes/registry/economy/fm-eco-029-growth-theater.md"

legacy_source_file: "content/archive/failure-modes/registry/economy/fm-ecox-027-growth-theater.md"

notes: "Unified from former FM-ECOX-027 into continuous Economy namespace. Domain expression of success proxy substitution focused on visible growth, adoption, scale, revenue, valuation, market reach, productivity, output, or activity being treated as success without confirming capacity, delivery, repair, affected-node improvement, or durable value."

entry:

failure_mode_id: "FM-ECO-029"

failure_family: "Economy"

production_treatment: "Domain Expression"

legacy_ids:

• "FM-ECOX-027"

parent_modes:

• "FM-CORE-003 — Success Proxy Substitution"
• "FM-ECO-010 — Expansion Without Capacity"
• "FM-C-018 — Goodhart Collapse"
• "FM-CORE-001 — Pseudo-Coherence"
• "FM-S-017 — Terminal Scaling Failure"

first_gate_failure: "Growth Integrity Gate"

primary_hidden_debt: "Hidden debt accumulates when visible growth creates obligations, expectations, users, complexity, repair burden, risk, or local degradation that are not included in growth accounting."

primary_inversion: "Growth becomes proof of health; the system treats expansion, adoption, revenue, valuation, or activity as success even when the growth is hollow, extractive, unsupported, or debt-producing."

primary_boundary_pattern: "The boundary between real growth and growth signal collapses; visible expansion is counted as success before its capacity, value, and restoration conditions are validated."

primary_signature: "Growth indicators rise; capacity and repair lag; local burden increases; delivery quality weakens or becomes thinner; valuation or legitimacy improves; hidden growth debt accumulates beneath expansion metrics."

FM-ECO-029 — Growth Theater

Status: Draft

Archive Type: Failure Mode

System: Universal Theory Stack

Parent: Failure Modes

Canon Tier: Registry

Registry: Failure Modes Registry

Entry ID: FM-ECO-029

Legacy ID: FM-ECOX-027

Family: Economy

Production Treatment: Domain Expression

Parent Modes: FM-CORE-003 — Success Proxy Substitution; FM-ECO-010 — Expansion Without Capacity; FM-C-018 — Goodhart Collapse; FM-CORE-001 — Pseudo-Coherence; FM-S-017 — Terminal Scaling Failure

0. Economic Scope Note

This entry is conceptual and systems-oriented.

It does not treat growth, adoption, revenue, valuation, expansion, productivity, market reach, output, investment, scale, increased demand, or rising activity as inherently failed.

Growth can be coherent.

Growth can reflect real value when it is:

• capacity-backed
• delivery-valid
• repair-funded
• locally coherent
• non-extractive
• auditable
• phase-aware
• consent-valid
• maintenance-aware
• burden-accounted
• durable
• compatible with affected-node improvement

The failure begins when growth signal replaces growth truth.

The issue is not growth.

The issue is growth performed, displayed, or celebrated without proving that it improves coherence.

Growth Theater occurs when the system treats visible increase as sufficient evidence of health.

1. Definition

Growth Theater occurs when visible expansion, adoption, revenue, valuation, output, scale, user count, market reach, productivity, or activity is presented as economic success while the growth lacks sufficient capacity, delivery integrity, repair funding, local coherence, legitimacy, or durable value.

The theatrical growth may appear as:

• rising user count
• rising revenue
• rising valuation
• market expansion
• geographic expansion
• service expansion
• output increase
• productivity increase
• adoption increase
• downloads
• signups
• engagement
• transaction volume
• partnership announcements
• headcount increase
• asset growth
• infrastructure growth
• AI deployment growth
• policy rollout
• platform scale
• customer acquisition
• investment inflow
• media attention
• public confidence

The core failure is:

growth signal↑
capacity / value / repair validation↓
legitimacy aura↑
H↑

Growth Theater is not merely shallow optimism.

It is visible increase being used as a substitute for coherence validation.

2. Core Pattern

The core pattern is:

1. A system identifies growth as success.
2. Growth metrics become priority indicators.
3. The system expands users, output, reach, revenue, activity, adoption, or valuation.
4. The growth is celebrated as proof of strength.
5. Supporting capacity, maintenance, repair, delivery quality, and affected-node outcomes are under-tested.
6. Growth creates new obligations and burden.
7. The system’s visible indicators improve.
8. Hidden debt accumulates through unsupported expansion, extraction, under-delivery, or repair starvation.
9. The system continues pursuing growth to preserve the success narrative.
10. Restoration requires separating visible growth from durable value.

This failure often appears as:

we are growing, so the system is working

while the hidden truth may be:

the growth is creating debt faster than coherence

or:

adoption proves value

while the overlooked condition is:

adoption may reflect dependency, novelty, lack of alternatives, or captured demand

The restorative question is:

what would remain if the growth metric stopped being counted as proof?

Growth Theater turns expansion into a success costume.

3. Failure Signature

Typical signature:

growth metric↑
capacity fit↓
repair funding↓
delivery quality↓
local burden↑
legitimacy signal↑
H↑

Extended signature:

users increase while support collapses
valuation rises while maintenance debt grows
revenue rises while extraction burden deepens
productivity rises while recovery time disappears
market reach expands while local repair falls
AI adoption rises while correction and appeal capacity lag
engagement rises while attention burden increases
partnership announcements rise while operational fit is untested

Common forms include:

a platform celebrates user growth while moderation and appeals remain underfunded
a company celebrates revenue growth while worker burden and turnover rise
a city celebrates development while infrastructure maintenance lags
a public program reports enrollment growth while service quality thins
an AI tool reports adoption while users absorb correction and verification burden
a startup celebrates valuation while unit economics depend on hidden extraction
a supply chain celebrates throughput while supplier resilience declines
a policy rollout celebrates coverage while local access fails
an institution celebrates partnerships while affected nodes remain unrepaired

The defining condition is not that growth occurs.

The defining condition is that growth is treated as success while its coherence conditions remain unmet.

4. Primary U-Layer Origin

Common origin layers:

• U1 — Power / Budgets: funding, valuation, profit, political incentives, or institutional status reward growth signals.
• U2 — Configuration / Boundaries: success metrics exclude burden, repair, or local outcomes.
• U3 — Execution / Runtime: operations scale activity without matching support.
• U4 — Information / Truth: growth metric substitutes for value truth.
• U5 — Coordination / Time: short-term growth outruns long-term maintenance.
• U6 — Coherence Field: expansion creates legitimacy aura.
• U7 — Memory / Recurrence: past growth narratives become default proof of success.
• U8 — Environment / Field: market, media, policy, or competitive fields reward visible increase.

Common manifestation layers:

• U1 — Power: growth metrics attract resources.
• U2 — Boundaries: burden is excluded from the growth ledger.
• U3 — Execution: obligations increase.
• U4 — Truth: growth becomes proof.
• U5 — Time: debt accumulates after metric success.
• U6 — Field: growth aura masks thinness.
• U8 — Environment: attention reinforces expansion.

Growth Theater is primarily a U4 success-proxy and U1 incentive failure.

The system funds and legitimizes what grows, even if the growth is not coherent.

5. Typical Development Sequence

A common development sequence is:

1. Growth becomes the preferred success signal.
2. Metrics are chosen to show expansion, adoption, revenue, valuation, output, or activity.
3. Incentives align around increasing the metric.
4. Growth accelerates.
5. Capacity warnings appear.
6. Repair, support, maintenance, and quality concerns are treated as secondary.
7. Growth metrics continue improving.
8. The system becomes more confident.
9. Local burden, hidden debt, and under-delivery increase.
10. The system needs more growth to maintain legitimacy or financing.
11. Growth becomes self-justifying.
12. Eventually the unsupported growth produces collapse, churn, backlash, debt exposure, or legitimacy loss.

The loop often looks like:

growth metric → legitimacy → resources for more growth → burden excluded → hidden debt

Another common loop is:

adoption rises → support lags → quality falls → more acquisition needed to offset churn

Growth Theater becomes self-reinforcing when growth is used to cover the debt created by prior growth.

6. Diagnostic Markers

Diagnostic markers include:

• Growth indicators rise while local coherence declines.
• Support, maintenance, repair, or governance capacity does not scale with adoption.
• Revenue grows through extraction, lock-in, or price pressure rather than durable value.
• Valuation grows faster than delivery or repair capacity.
• User count rises while user outcomes degrade.
• Output rises while rework and hidden labor rise.
• Productivity gains depend on burnout, unpaid time, or lost slack.
• Growth claims exclude churn, repair backlog, or affected-node burden.
• Expansion announcements exceed implementation capacity.
• The system cannot name what burden the growth creates.
• Growth is used to dismiss criticism.
• Local nodes say the system is “bigger” but thinner.
• Restoration improves when growth is paused, audited, or capacity-backed.

Useful diagnostics:

• Growth Integrity: Tests whether growth reflects durable value.
• Capacity Fit: Compares growth with delivery, support, maintenance, and governance capacity.
• Value / Burden Fit: Determines whether value created exceeds burden created.
• Delivery Quality: Tests whether growth preserves service or output integrity.
• Repair Funding Fit: Checks whether growth funds restoration.
• Local Coherence: Determines whether affected nodes improve.
• Hidden Debt: Tracks debt created beneath growth metrics.
• Valuation / Capacity Fit: Compares perceived value with real capacity.
• Auditability: Determines whether growth claims can be traced.
• Affected-Node Improvement: Tests whether growth improves those carrying the system.

7. Related Gates

Relevant gates include:

• Growth Integrity Gate: Fails when growth is accepted without coherence validation.
• Capacity Gate: Fails when growth exceeds delivery or support capacity.
• Value Reality Gate: Fails when growth signal substitutes for durable value.
• Delivery Gate: Fails when expansion weakens delivery.
• Repair Gate: Fails when growth does not fund restoration.
• Local Coherence Gate: Fails when affected nodes degrade under growth.
• Auditability Gate: Fails when growth claims cannot be traced to real effects.
• Hidden Debt Gate: Fails when growth-created burden is excluded.
• Legitimacy Gate: Fails when growth aura substitutes for legitimacy.

The first common gate failure is usually the Growth Integrity Gate.

The system accepts visible increase as success before testing what the increase costs or preserves.

8. Related Operators

Relevant operators include:

• G — Gain: Primary operator; amplifies growth pressure, velocity, and metric pursuit.
• Φ — Flow / Resource Movement: Routes capital, labor, attention, and resources toward growth.
• O — Coherence: May appear high through expansion and activity.
• H — Hidden Debt: Accumulates beneath unsupported growth.
• R — Restoration Capacity: Must scale with burden but often lags.
• K — Constraint / Load: Rises as growth adds obligations.
• Au — Auditability: Reveals whether growth claims reflect real value.
• Ψ — Observation / Interface: Determines which growth signals are visible.
• Γ — Selection: Selects growth targets and success metrics.
• Λ — Compatibility: Tests whether growth fits capacity and context.
• D — Damping: Should throttle growth when repair and capacity lag.
• BΣ — Boundary Integrity: Prevents growth burden from being exported or hidden.
• Τ — Trajectory / Time: Tracks growth debt over time.

Common operator pattern:

G growth pressure rises
Γ selects expansion metric
Φ routes resources to growth
O appears high through visible increase
R and capacity lag
K rises in affected nodes
Au fails to include burden
H accumulates
D fails to throttle

The core operator inversion is:

growth → success

instead of:

growth + capacity + repair + local coherence + durable value → success

Growth Theater turns increase into proof.

9. Related Laws and Invariants

Related Laws

• Success Proxy Substitution: growth metrics substitute for real success.
• Expansion Without Capacity: growth outruns support, maintenance, and governance.
• Echo Inflation: repeated growth narratives inflate legitimacy.
• Narrative Dominance: growth story overrules local evidence.
• Risk Model Theater: modeled growth risk appears controlled while debt accumulates.
• Hidden Debt Accumulation: unsupported growth stores future burden.
• Forced Profit: growth may be extracted under coercion.
• Repair Starvation: growth is funded while repair is neglected.
• Exported Economic Incoherence: growth creates burden outside the accounting frame.
• Pseudo-Coherence: visible expansion hides incoherence.
• Goodhart Collapse: growth targets distort behavior.
• Terminal Scaling Failure: unsupported growth eventually becomes nonviable.

Related Invariants

• Growth Must Preserve Coherence: expansion is invalid if it degrades the field.
• Expansion Must Carry Capacity: growth must include delivery, maintenance, and repair capacity.
• Adoption Is Not Restoration: usage does not prove improvement.
• Revenue Is Not Value Unless Burden Is Accounted: income must be evaluated against cost and harm.
• Scale Must Include Repair Capacity: larger systems require larger restoration capacity.
• Growth Must Improve Affected Nodes: burdened nodes must become more viable, not less.
• Visible Activity Must Not Substitute for Durable Value: motion is not health.

10. Common False Positives

Not every growth signal is Growth Theater.

Common false positives include:

• Growth supported by proportional capacity.
• Adoption paired with improved affected-node outcomes.
• Revenue growth that reflects real value and repaired externalities.
• Valuation grounded in durable delivery and maintenance capacity.
• Productivity growth that reduces burden rather than hiding it.
• Expansion that includes repair funding.
• Market reach that improves local coherence.
• Increased users with matching support, safety, appeal, and governance.
• Output increase with quality preservation.
• Growth that slows when capacity or repair lags.
• Public success claims that include hidden debt accounting.
• Growth that remains auditable and reversible.

Clarifying rule:

This is not Growth Theater unless visible growth, adoption, revenue, valuation, output, activity, scale, or productivity is treated as success while capacity, repair, delivery, local coherence, durable value, or burden accounting remains insufficient.

11. Common False Repairs

Common false repairs include:

• changing the growth metric
• adding quality language without quality capacity
• creating growth dashboards with hidden-debt annotations but no repair
• hiring growth staff while support remains underfunded
• celebrating “sustainable growth” without maintenance funding
• using churn reduction tactics instead of value repair
• calling extraction “monetization maturity”
• adding customer success messaging while delivery thins
• using AI or automation to hide support starvation
• slowing public announcements while internal growth pressure remains
• funding pilot repair while expansion continues faster
• reframing growth as impact without affected-node validation
• replacing valuation theater with adoption theater
• treating public skepticism as brand problem
• adding risk controls that do not change growth incentives

False repair often produces the loop:

growth theater exposed → growth story revised → growth pressure preserved → hidden debt continues

Another common loop is:

support collapse appears → new growth funds sought → growth adds more support burden

The repair fails because it preserves growth as the organizing proof of success.

12. Restoration Direction

Restoration requires auditing growth against capacity, burden, repair, and local coherence; slowing or redesigning unsupported growth; attaching restoration capacity to expansion; and regrounding value in affected-node improvement.

Primary restoration direction:

audit growth integrity,
attach capacity and repair,
reduce hidden growth debt,
and validate affected-node improvement

A fuller restoration path includes:

1. Name the growth signal. Identify the user count, revenue, valuation, adoption, output, productivity, reach, or activity being claimed.
2. Name the success claim. Determine what the growth is being used to prove.
3. Audit capacity fit. Compare growth with delivery, support, governance, maintenance, and repair capacity.
4. Audit value / burden fit. Determine whether the growth creates more value than burden.
5. Map affected nodes. Identify who carries the load created by growth.
6. Measure hidden growth debt. Track support backlog, maintenance debt, churn, rework, extraction, and trust loss.
7. Check delivery quality. Determine whether growth thins the service or product.
8. Attach repair funding. Require growth to fund restoration proportional to its burden.
9. Throttle unsupported growth. Slow expansion where capacity or repair is below threshold.
10. Redesign incentives. Reward durable value and local coherence, not just increase.
11. Ground valuation. Link valuation, legitimacy, or confidence to capacity and repair.
12. Restore affected-node feedback. Let users, workers, communities, or downstream nodes validate growth quality.
13. Repair prior growth debt. Address burdens created by earlier theater.
14. Install growth gates. Prevent expansion without capacity, repair, and local coherence checks.
15. Validate durable value. Confirm the system remains coherent after the growth signal fades.

A valid restoration path should reduce:

unsupported growth
growth-created burden
repair lag
capacity mismatch
valuation overhang
delivery thinning
local coherence loss
hidden growth debt
H

Growth Theater is not repaired by growing better-looking metrics.

It is repaired by making growth answerable to capacity, repair, and real value.

13. Cross-Module Links

• Economy: Core failure of growth metrics, revenue, valuation, scale, adoption, productivity, and expansion claims.
• Scaling: Unsupported growth links directly to expansion without capacity, hidden debt explosion, and terminal scaling failure.
• Cybernetics: Growth metrics become control signals and Goodhart targets.
• Restoration: Growth must fund repair and reduce hidden debt.
• Justice: Growth burden often falls on affected nodes without standing or compensation.
• AI Governance: AI adoption, deployment scale, benchmark gains, productivity claims, and platform usage can become growth theater when correction, appeal, audit, and restoration lag.
• Diagnostics: Requires growth-integrity, capacity-fit, value/burden-fit, hidden-debt, and local-coherence diagnostics.
• Platforms: User growth, engagement, and creator activity can mask support, moderation, and dependency burdens.
• Meta-Theory: Growth narratives can dominate interpretation and suppress disconfirmation.
• Coherence: Coherent growth must improve the field it expands through.

14. Relationship to Parent / Child Modes

Production treatment: Domain Expression

This mode maps upward to:

• FM-CORE-003 — Success Proxy Substitution
• FM-ECO-010 — Expansion Without Capacity
• FM-C-018 — Goodhart Collapse
• FM-CORE-001 — Pseudo-Coherence
• FM-S-017 — Terminal Scaling Failure

Sibling or related Economy modes include:

• FM-ECO-010 — Expansion Without Capacity
• FM-ECO-011 — Exported Economic Incoherence
• FM-ECO-017 — Echo Inflation
• FM-ECO-019 — Narrative Dominance
• FM-ECO-020 — Risk Model Theater
• FM-ECO-027 — Extraction Masking Instability
• FM-ECO-028 — Repair Starvation
• FM-ECO-030 — Basin Defender Promotion
• FM-ECO-032 — Pseudo-Coherent Economic Stability

Related cross-family modes include:

• FM-CORE-001 — Pseudo-Coherence
• FM-CORE-002 — Hidden Debt Accumulation
• FM-CORE-003 — Success Proxy Substitution
• FM-C-018 — Goodhart Collapse
• FM-C-020 — Measurement Back-Action Loop
• FM-S-010 — Hidden Debt Explosion
• FM-S-017 — Terminal Scaling Failure
• FM-MT-002 — Narrative Substitution
• FM-MT-011 — Managed Optics Failure
• FM-AIX-004 — Institutional Optics Attractor
• FM-AIX-018 — Civilizational Deskilling
• FM-R-007 — Repair Suppression via Efficiency

Aliases preserved from source material:

• Growth Theater
• Economic Growth Theater
• Expansion Theater
• Scale Theater
• Adoption Theater
• Valuation Theater
• Revenue Theater
• Productivity Theater
• Activity as Growth
• Visible Growth Without Coherence

Legacy source preserved:

legacy_ids:
  - "FM-ECOX-027"
deprecated_source_ids:
  - "FM-ECOX-027"
source_aliases:
  - "Economy Extended Entry 027"

15. Minimal Entry Version

Definition: Growth Theater occurs when visible expansion, adoption, revenue, valuation, output, scale, user count, market reach, productivity, or activity is presented as economic success while the growth lacks sufficient capacity, delivery integrity, repair funding, local coherence, legitimacy, or durable value.

Signature:

growth metric↑
capacity fit↓
repair funding↓
delivery quality↓
local burden↑
legitimacy signal↑
H↑

Restoration direction:

• name the growth signal
• name the success claim
• audit capacity fit
• audit value / burden fit
• map affected nodes
• measure hidden growth debt
• check delivery quality
• attach repair funding
• throttle unsupported growth
• redesign incentives
• ground valuation
• restore affected-node feedback
• repair prior growth debt
• install growth gates
• validate durable value

16. Machine-Readable Summary

failure_mode:
  id: "FM-ECO-029"
  name: "Growth Theater"
  family: "Economy"
  production_treatment: "Domain Expression"
  legacy_ids:
    - "FM-ECOX-027"
  parent_modes:
    - "FM-CORE-003 — Success Proxy Substitution"
    - "FM-ECO-010 — Expansion Without Capacity"
    - "FM-C-018 — Goodhart Collapse"
    - "FM-CORE-001 — Pseudo-Coherence"
    - "FM-S-017 — Terminal Scaling Failure"
  primary_failure: "Visible growth, adoption, revenue, valuation, output, activity, scale, or productivity is treated as success while capacity, repair, delivery, local coherence, durable value, or burden accounting remains insufficient."
  source: "UTS — Failure Modes Registry"
  source_id: "FM-ECO-029"
  deprecated_source_ids:
    - "FM-ECOX-027"
  scope_note: "Conceptual and systems-oriented; does not treat growth, adoption, revenue, valuation, expansion, productivity, market reach, output, investment, scale, increased demand, or rising activity as inherently failed."
  aliases:
    - "Growth Theater"
    - "Economic Growth Theater"
    - "Expansion Theater"
    - "Scale Theater"
    - "Adoption Theater"
    - "Valuation Theater"
    - "Revenue Theater"
    - "Productivity Theater"
    - "Activity as Growth"
    - "Visible Growth Without Coherence"
  signature:
    - "growth metric↑"
    - "capacity fit↓"
    - "repair funding↓"
    - "delivery quality↓"
    - "local burden↑"
    - "legitimacy signal↑"
    - "H↑"
  primary_layers:
    origin:
      - "U1 — Power / Budgets"
      - "U2 — Configuration / Boundaries"
      - "U3 — Execution / Runtime"
      - "U4 — Information / Truth"
      - "U5 — Coordination / Time"
      - "U6 — Coherence Field"
      - "U7 — Memory / Recurrence"
      - "U8 — Environment / Field"
    manifestation:
      - "U1 — Power"
      - "U2 — Boundaries"
      - "U3 — Execution"
      - "U4 — Truth"
      - "U5 — Time"
      - "U6 — Field"
      - "U8 — Environment"
  state_variables:
    - "G"
    - "Φ"
    - "O"
    - "H"
    - "R"
    - "K"
    - "Au"
    - "Ψ"
    - "Γ"
    - "Λ"
    - "D"
    - "BΣ"
    - "Τ"
  first_gate_failure: "Growth Integrity Gate"
  restoration:
    - "Growth Integrity Audit"
    - "Capacity-Backed Growth Recalibration"
    - "Value / Burden Accounting"
    - "Adoption Quality Review"
    - "Repair Funding Attachment"
    - "Hidden Growth Debt Accounting"
    - "Local Coherence Validation"
    - "Valuation Grounding"
    - "Expansion Throttling"
    - "Durable Value Restoration"