Poised on the brink of economic meltdown as we are, governments
all over the world are baying frantically for growth. But growth is not the answer
to our problems.
Way back in the 1700’s Adam Smith recognized a limit to
economic growth. He predicted that in the long run, population growth would
push wages down, and natural resources would become increasingly scarce.
Consider a steady state economy -
an economy of stable or mildly fluctuating size, minimal chance of the boom and
bust cycle, less opportunity for outright greed. The term can apply equally to
a national economy, a local, regional, or global economy. To be sustainable, a
steady state economy must not exceed ecological limits, and that is it’s most
important attribute.
Our recent and unprecedented growth in economic activity has
significantly shifted the balance of nature with potentially disastrous consequences
for the ecology of the planet, for our own well-being but particularly for that
of the next generation. It is a mistake to believe that more growth will
diminish our problems. In the long term more growth would be a disaster, as continuous
growth is completely incompatible with sustainability.
A steady state economy does not imply a stationary state of
human improvement. There would be as much scope as ever for all kinds of mental
culture, and moral and social progress; as much room for improving the Art of
Living (and a bigger likelihood of it being improved), when minds cease to be
engrossed by the shallow art of obtaining more money.
The human economy is embedded in nature, completely.
Without the natural world to draw upon, there is nothing to make money from.
But we have been perverse. We have exploited nature to its very limits, maybe
beyond its ability to absorb our delinquency. Economic processes are actually biological, physical, and
chemical processes. Humans don’t create anything, they transform it into
something else – plastics, cars, toxic waste.
Economic growth cannot be relied upon to alleviate poverty
either. On the contrary, economic growth has polarized wealth – mostly into the
hands of the few. If the pie isn’t getting any bigger, we need to cut and
distribute the pieces in a fair way. Poor people who have trouble meeting basic
needs tend not to care about sustainability - how can they when the priority is
finding the next meal. At the other end of the scale, excessively rich people
tend to consume unsustainable quantities of resources. Fair distribution of
wealth, therefore, is a critical part of sustainability and the steady state
economy.
60 years ago, John Maynard Keynes said “The day is not far
off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the
arena of the heart and the head will be occupied or reoccupied, by our real
problems – the problems of life and of human relations, of creation and behaviour
and religion.”
Economic collapse is extremely painful. But environmental
collapse - the collapse of the planet's support systems which sustain life on
earth as we know it - that is truly unbearable.
Governments have their heads stuck in the past. They can
only think of recreating what has been – growth. But the future will be
different. The future needs the fairness and sustainability only steady state
economics can bring.
More here at http://steadystate.org
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steady-state_economy
