The Steady-State Economy The real – and only – ‘Alternative’ Development
The Steady-State Economy The real – and only – ‘Alternative’ Development.
Dec 15, 2015
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TheSteady-State
EconomyThe real – and only –
‘Alternative’ Development
‘Growth’= more ‘throughput’
More people
More things
Conventional development
Ideology of conventional developmentThe more, the bigger, the faster, the higher, the newer… the better!
“You can’t freeze change!”
“You’re an elitist…trying to stop ordinary people getting what they need”
“You can’t stop progress”
“No-growth is stagnation”
Former president of Botswana onthe Kalahari bushmen:'How can you have a hunter-gatherer living in the age of computers? If the bushman wants to survive he must change, otherwise, like the dodo, he will perish’.
"To get rich is glorious."former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping
The world's biggest family?:Ziona Chana with his 39 wives, 94 children & 33 grandchildren.They live in a 100-room mansion. His wives take it in turns to share his bed.It takes 30 whole chickens just to make dinner.
‘Growth’ & people pressure
Development delusions: ‘Trickle Down’
Sao Paolo, Brazil
Development delusions: ‘More jobs!’
Conventional“development” thinking,MonetaristtoMarxist,depreciatesrealwealthofnations
Development delusions: “It’s the economy, stupid”
Reality checkPeople are economic transformers
not wealth creators
Real ‘wealth of nations’:
• Physical space• Atmospheric balances• UV filtering• Purification of air• Potable water• Regulation of water cycle• Water storage• Photosynthesis• Fertile soil• Vegetative resources• Pollination• Mineral resources• Waste decomposition• Nutrient recycling• Stable climate• Checks & balances against extremes
‘Mother Earth’
Ecology
Society
Economy
Solar ‘driver’
‘techno-develpment’ often creates more problems than it solves.
Technology can make some differencebut the potential of ‘alternatives’ is frequently exaggerated
‘Alternative’ is frequently not ‘appropriate’
As of 2011
New rhetoric of Growthism
“Weightless economy”
“Information society”
“Business at the speed of thought”
“We-Think”
“Sustainable Development”
“Green growth”
‘Limits to conventional development’
Success can conceal growing risk of failure…Progresscan becomeregress
Richard Wilson
“Age of the Anthropocene”
Overdevelopment: new course needed
Dream of Growthversus Limits:
* Earth’s Geology:Limits to ‘sources’, ‘sinks’ & suitable sites
* Entropy:Limits toenergy conversions & material usage
* Ecology:Unsustainable disruption of Earth’s life-support systems
Earth’s finitude
Entropy
Ecology
Does production for social need remove ‘limits’ barriers?
?Both, however, run up similar bills
in nature’s accounts
Over-consumptionToo many People
Technological blowback
‘Affluenza’(+ deepening inequalities)
“Things Bite Back”
Excessive ‘footprint’– Nature bites back
Decliningquality of life…
On-going physical growthat some point erodes:
‘Dignity’… Privacy… Personal Space… Tranquility…
Choice… Democracy… Human rights… Job opportunities… Education & health and social care
facilities…Leisure options……
Crisis of conventional development:Quantity versus Quality
Price of Over-development
Tokyo Water Park,whose slogan reads …
Price of Over-development
Growth: ‘cure’ that will kill
Peaks in various fuel & other resources
Climate change
Congestion
Housing shortages
Explosive growth of slum cities
Air pollution
Water pollution
Overflowing landfills
Growing shortages of key minerals
Decreasing quality of life
Unemployment
‘Affluenza’
Growing food shortages
Growing water shortages
Overfishing
Competition for land
Biodevastation
Urban disordersCivil wars & terrorism
Austerity & declining ‘social wage’
Toxic & radioactive contamination
Crumbling education, health & other services
Inequality & discrimination
Acidification
‘Lonely crowd’
Democratic deficit
Growth,Over-shoot & danger of collapse
Growth > Overshoot
More slices of the planettaken by people
the less for ‘non-people’
Limits-to-growth cannot be cheated!
The issue is about finding an optimum:it is not about rejecting all change
The steady-state economy
Real progress:better use
of a sustainable levelof throughput of
space, energy & matter
The sustainable economy will be muchslower & smaller than Industrialism
Key measures• Population in balance
with carrying capacity at all levels
• Steady stock of artefactsi.e. physical goods & services(inc. dependent animals!)in sustainable equilibrium with ‘sources’ and ‘sinks’
• ‘Conserver’ technology,focussing on reduction of resource ‘inputs’rather than outputs (‘end-of-pipe’ pollution control etc.)
Tax resources, not labour• Ecological land use planning: “design with nature”
Some other policies
• Renting & borrowing not owning• Full cost pricing• End to ‘corporate welfare’ & ‘perverse subsidies’• End to debt-based money supply• Break up of over-big firms; public ownership of key utilities• ‘Green licenses’ for businesses?• Ceilings on land ownership?; land trusts / covenants;
site value taxation?• Time management (e.g. seasons / daylight hours)
• Limits to differentials within society, nationally and globally
Basic income schemes/citizens dividends as transitional tool
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