Despite the obvious absurdity of taxing our finite planet to infinity, growth remains the exclusive economic goal most officials in power cling to. What can explain their sobering lack of vision?
| This post belongs to a reading series of Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth. For quick access to all chapters, please click here. Disclaimer: This chapter summary is personal work and an invitation to read the book itself for a detailed view of all the author’s ideas. |
“The twentieth century bequeathed to us economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive, and we are now living through the social and ecological fallout of that inheritance. Twenty-first-century economists, especially those in today’s high-income countries, now face a challenge that their predecessors did not have to contemplate: to create economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow.” This, adds the author, calls for “transforming the financial, political and social structures that have made our economies and societies come to expect, demand and depend upon growth.”