![]() While I see the need for your work and am encouraged to see the attention you bring to the problem, IMO you need to focus far more on real economic solutions and less on un-quantified conceptual economic philosophies - like circular economies and or "Doughnut Economics." Without quantifiable inputs and outputs it is far too easy to economically confuse subsistence, decline and economic decay, with optimized economic sustainability. Far from leading to social collapse, economic growth was thus self-correcting – not to mention the only way for countries to develop out of poverty. Technological innovation will lead to new, cleaner methods of production. Other resources will then be substituted for it, and it will be used more efficiently. If a resource becomes scarce, its price will rise, they pointed out. In 1972, the book came under immediate fire from economists who claimed that its authors failed to understand basic economics. Exponential economic growth could not go on forever at some point in the next 100 years, it would inevitably run up against Earth’s finite environmental limits.Ī half-century later, with a climate and environmental crisis upon us, the debate triggered by The Limits to Growth has returned with a vengeance. Written for the Club of Rome by Donella Meadows and colleagues at MIT, The Limits to Growth used new computer models to forecast an uncontrollable collapse in the global population and economy if prevailing patterns of environmental resource use and pollution continued. Instead, he proposed the term ‘sustainability transition perspective’.BERLIN – Fifty years ago this spring, one of the most influential books of the twentieth century was published. At the same time, he critiqued that even post-growth concepts that claim to be agnostic to growth, rely on the very term. By focusing on growth, she said, we focus too much on beliefs, where it is actions that matter.įinally, Michael Jakob from MCC Berlin, welcomed the fruitful discourse and partial synthesis of proposals originating from different spectrums of the growth debate. To determine how we can design policies that meet this goal, is the true challenge, more so than the debate around growth. Karen Pittel from ifo stated that reaching high levels of prosperity, rather than growth should be the goal. ![]() Growth, she said, is not inherently good or bad – what matters, is the question how we can achieve the goal of living well with everyone within planetary boundaries. Katharina Beck, from Bündnis 90/ Die Grüne, agreed, but emphasized the importance of decomposing the latest insights into the growth debate into concrete political measures. Nils aus dem Moore, professor at RWI Essen, added that we cannot successfully defuse the growth debate without adding to it the important question how planetary boundaries and a ‘good life’ can be defined – and how that definition can then be socially dispersed. On the 50 th birthday of the Club of Rome report, this is what the growth debate, according to Jacobs, should move towards. This position forms part of a larger body of research and scholarly debate, embraced under the umbrella term of post-growth. Rather, economists, politicians and society generally should focus on the things we desire directly. Those arguments then laid the ground for the discussion to follow.Īt the same time, he stated, attacking growth is not an effective political strategy because growth is so deeply embedded into our political system. From a historical perspective on the growth debate, to the creation of the growth paradigm and first critiques of growth as a goal in and of itself in the 1970s, to an overview of different growth-critical and growth-agnostic approaches, the paper provides an in-depth overview of the different arguments which have been made, and the different conclusions reached, in the debate about the possibility and desirability of economic growth. Xhulia Likaj started the session off by explaining the motivation for the paper – to move closer to the center stage of economics a debate which, for all its faults and ideological warfare, addresses the most pressing issue humanity is faced with today. The event took place in collaboration with The New Institute. In an effort to shed light on a decade long conflict in economics, Michael Jacobs from SPERI and Xhulia Likaj from Forum New Economy presented insights into the growth debate from their soon to be published Forum working paper at our recent symposium on prosperity in the 21 st century. ![]() With general environmental indicators on decline, a planet arriving at a state of emergency and rising inequality rates, the heated debate around the future of economic growth doesn’t run out of fuel.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |