Enough is Enough - Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill - Part 1

Enough is Enough
- Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill

2017 Reading Challenge - Day 92

  April 2, 2017 

Book 30 - Enough is Enough - Building a Sustainable Economy in a World of Finite Resources
Rob Dietz and Dan O'Neill (2013)
 Part 1 - pages 1-58
Reading Time - 1 hour

This is a book I could sink my teeth into! It's in line with a lot of the other books I've been reading on the environment and a sustainable economy. The authors put forward the idea that maybe we could create a world in which "enough" is sufficient for a good life rather than always "more".

Cause the thing is... never-ending economic growth is not feasible (despite what Mr. Koch of The 80/20 Principle suggests). We live on a finite planet and economic growth that benefits 1% of the population (the rich elites) but that passes the costs (environmental, social) down to the 99% of the rest of us... well... that just ain't what the world needs right now. The authors suggest that a steady-state economy might be the answer. And before you get all twitchy... it doesn't mean we live in the cold dark of a communist regime under a Politburo!

The economy (money) is a subset of the social economy (humans) which is in turn a subset of the biological economy (the world). We are growing the money economy to the detriment of the human and biological economy. We know this already... the climate, the extinctions, the poverty, the pollution, the debt. It's all there if we want to see it. But our culture (at least in the First World) tends to value owning and consuming, and that is no longer sustainable... but what if we could create a future where sustainable and equitable human well-being is the goal? That would be kind of cool. It might take a while to get there, but it would be neat.

Today, our eco-footprint is 1.5 Earths... that means we are growing our footprint bigger than the world we live in. There are ecological limits to economic growth. And the thing is... a growing GDP (Gross Domestic Product) doesn't make us happier or healthier. In an age where income inequality is growing and global production has not benefited the poor... we are going into debt, not just individually, but culturally and socially as well.

The thing with economic growth is that rich people tend to consume more than poor people. Which means their eco-footprint is higher. But all the poorer nations are wanting to follow in our footsteps and have economic growth as well. It's just that economic growth is exponential which means we are digger ourselves into a deep hole very, very quickly. Technology can help us up to a certain point but... it's tricky and never a sure thing.

No surprise but most economics courses don't even mention the idea of a steady-state economy. I'd never heard of the idea... mind you, I never took an economics course either. The steady-state economy would maintain a stable level of resource consumption and a stable population. The goal would be to get away from an increasing GDP and go to an increasing quality of life.

It would require a lot... a whole cultural shift... not just for nations, but globally as well. We'd need to rethink investment, ownership, productivity, environmental values, etc. But lots of studies are being done... and it looks workable. What it would look like... hard to say.