Should Economies Thrive, not Grow?

The measure of a healthy economy is constant growth of GDP, but is this measure sustainable? And is it good for the majority of people?

Historically, economic growth has been of the most benefit to wealthy people, who have become more and more wealthy. The richest 1% owns almost half of all the world’s wealth, while the poorest half of the world’s population owns just 0.75% of the wealth. Billionaires earn, collectively, $2.7 billion per day.

Not being a billionaire, I would like to try a different system. This week I listened to a podcast How to Citizen with Baratunde, “A New Shape for the Economy,” an interview with Kate Raworth, a renegade English economist. Her vision of a thriving economy is pictured as a doughnut. Her book, Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist, was published in 2017. Her vision would redistribute wealth and power, raise the living standard of our planet’s poorest people while recycling raw materials instead of increasing their depletion.

Rather than describe Kate’s doughnut, l’d like you to view her 15:45 minute Ted Talk.

https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_raworth_a_healthy_economy_should_be_designed_to_thrive_not_grow

Contributed by Teresa Wilmot