The article in the url below is too long to summarize easily, but I wanted to forward it because I think it is worth reading. The focus of the article (actually a review of three recently published books) is the inflated importance of economic growth in our society through ever-expanding production and consumption. The author doesn’t ask if this economic model is sustainable, because it is clear from his writing that he is convinced it is not. Rather, his goal is to question why our society has evolved in this way and what it might take for us to reconsider. A couple of quotes convey the author’s argument effectively:
“… to raise the worldwide standard of living up to the level now prevailing in Portugal (the last country on the list of the richest thirty) would quadruple world economic output over the next fifty years.”
“Industrial society is roughly 250 years old: make the last ten thousand years equal to twenty-four hours, and we have been producing consumer goods and CO2 for only the last thirty-six minutes. Do the same for the past 1 million years of human evolution, and everything from the steam engine to the search engine fits into the past twenty-one seconds. If we are not careful, hunting and gathering will look like a far more successful strategy for survival than economic growth.”
In short, the author poses the question:
“What would it mean to live in a no-growth economy?”
His implicit answer is that we have no choice but to find out.
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
Fear of fallowing: The specter of a no-growth world
Harper's Magazine
Review
by Steven Stoll
March 2008, pp88-94
http://www.steadystate.org/Files/Harpers_on_EE.pdf
