by From Peter McManners Economics has evolved over the last two centuries, from Adam Smith’s ideas to expand into a colossus which is now the dominant driver of policy. This has set the world on a track of extraordinary success, as measured by GDP and wealth. Continuing down this track, defined by economic objectives, leads to levels of consumption beyond our dreams and beyond the capacity of the planet. Success today comes at the price of downfall in the future, as “economic civilisation” hits the buffers of resource limits and unacceptable levels of environmental degradation undermining human health and agricultural capacity. Collapse of civilization has been on the cards for some time, because it is a logical certainty that a civilisation which uses economic glue to hold it together,
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from Peter McManners
Economics has evolved over the last two centuries, from Adam Smith’s ideas to expand into a colossus which is now the dominant driver of policy. This has set the world on a track of extraordinary success, as measured by GDP and wealth. Continuing down this track, defined by economic objectives, leads to levels of consumption beyond our dreams and beyond the capacity of the planet. Success today comes at the price of downfall in the future, as “economic civilisation” hits the buffers of resource limits and unacceptable levels of environmental degradation undermining human health and agricultural capacity. Collapse of civilization has been on the cards for some time, because it is a logical certainty that a civilisation which uses economic glue to hold it together, requiring ever more expansion and ever-increasing consumption, will come to a grinding halt sooner or later. We take solace in the thought that this will not happen in the near future, and perhaps not in our lifetimes. This is no longer the case; collapse could come within two or three decades and certainly within our children’s lifetimes – if civilisation continues on the same economic track.
Switching track without delay is vital to a vibrant and successful future for humanity. This cannot be done by good intentions leading to minor tweaks in policy and perhaps global environmental agreements without enforcement mechanisms. The world has to confront the cause of our predicament. That means pushing back against conventional economics. We need to find the courage and determination to insist that economics is demoted from “policy driver” to “policy enabler”. This shift of language may seem trivial until you pause and reflect. This shift of mind-set takes economics down a quite different track. This reframed focus of economic policy places social and environmental objectives at a high level in the policy hierarchy, above economic efficiency. This is an alien concept to the current pervading economic mind-set which so dominated the 20th century. In the 21st century, we need to develop a new and better economics which supports a sustainable society living on a finite planet into the long future. Instead of economics driving policy, it should enable policy; instead of being master, economics needs to accept its true place as servant. read more