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Overview

We need to find a way out of the economic crisis we’re currently facing. Is focusing on growth the best approach? And, if so, will it create genuine prosperity for developing nations?

Economic growth is critical for developing countries, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that continued economic growth will bring happiness and well-being to the developed world. In fact, our consumerist culture might actually be causing more unhappiness than it quells.

There are many alternatives to the current economic system. One of them is Prosperity Without Growth by Tim Jackson, which offers a different way for our economy to work that’s more environmentally friendly and leads to prosperity for everyone.

In this article, you’ll learn about the problem with today’s economic growth model and how we can change it.

You’ll also learn about the flaws of today’s consumer capitalism, why it isn’t sustainable, and how faulty economics is connected to a distorted social logic. You’ll learn what a successful transition would look like and why social equality will be at the core of that transition.

Big Idea #1: In order to speed up economic growth, high levels of unsustainable debt are encouraged.

Everyone wants to be prosperous, but how do we define prosperity? We define it by tracking economic growth and evaluating our own prosperity in terms of the rate at which our economy is expanding. Why do we measure prosperity like this? Because we believe that the more money or material goods you have, the better off you are. However, there are certain problems with measuring prosperity in terms of economic growth. Specifically, sustaining economic growth incurs high levels of national debt (money borrowed by governments) and consumer debt (money borrowed by individuals).

Consumer debt has been rising in the UK for years, and it’s now at unsustainable levels. In fact, people have borrowed so much money that they’re spending more than they can afford on credit cards and mortgages to buy their homes.

It’s good to encourage people to go into debt because that can help them improve their lives. However, if the economy becomes unstable, it could hurt those who are in debt. The most vulnerable people will be hurt the most.

Moreover, when economies are unstable, governments borrow money to sustain spending and growth. For example, following the financial crisis in 2008-09, governments took over failing banks and assumed their debts. In the UK for example, bailing out the banks resulted in doubling of national debt.

To some extent, debt is good. It helps businesses and governments function. However, too much debt can be bad because it’s unsustainable.

Big Idea #2: Despite apparent progress, the pursuit of economic growth is still harming our planet.

As we have seen, the current approach to increasing prosperity is to maximize economic growth. We’ve tried to do that while also curbing its impact on the environment.

One way to reduce the impact of humanity’s ecological footprint is to achieve relative decoupling. This means doing more with less, which can be achieved by achieving greater economic growth with a smaller environmental impact.

Although there has been some progress, the ecological cost of producing a unit of growth has not decreased much. Most of that progress occurred in developed countries, but not all countries have made similar strides. In fact, Portugal and Greece’s energy intensity increased by 40 percent from 1980 to 2000. The Middle East also saw an increase in energy intensity over the same time period.

But, even though the world has become more efficient in using energy and resources as it grows economically, overall ecological burdens have increased. To keep these burdens from increasing, we need to increase resource efficiency at a rate equal to or greater than economic output. However, this is not happening right now; the amount of carbon dioxide emitted worldwide has gone up by 80% since 1970.