We are facing the prospects of steadily rising commodity prices, water scarcity, rabid deforestation, the imminent end of the era of cheap oil, the collapse of fish stocks and a number of key minerals will be depleted in the coming decades. Yet people show no sign of worrying as they believe blindly that growth will last forever.
In reality, we are prisoners in an “iron cage of consumerism”, a system which depends on liquidity and consumption and which collapses when either one decreases.
Higher incomes do not guaranty happiness. The percentage of British people who were very happy decreased from 52 percent in 1957 to 36 percent today, despite the fact that their incomes have more than doubled. “Prosperity without Growth” addresses three issues: The need for sustainable growth, sustainable human activities and the damaging effect of consumerism. These issues cannot be resolved independently. The success of the implementation of environmental laws is tied to the re-structure of our present market economies.
Tim Jackson is Economics Commissioner of the Sustainable Development Commission, an independent advisory body to the UK government. This book challenges the assumption that growth is essential for prosperity. In other words, it asks whether it is possible to have “prosperity without growth”.
From Lisa kaaki's review of the book Prosperity without Growth written by Tim Jackson in Arab News
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