Why A New Wave Of Economists Are Championing Slow Economic Growth
A thriving nation needs a growing economy … or does it? A lot of economists say maximum growth is bad for society and the planet, and they’re preaching slow-growth — or even no-growth — economics.
Guests
Dietrich Vollrath, growth economist at the University of Houston. Author of “Fully Grown: Why a Stagnant Economy Is a Sign of Success.” (@DietzVollrath)
Kate Raworth, ecological economist at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute. Author of “Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist.” (@KateRaworth)
From The Reading ListExcerpt from “Doughnut Economics” by Kate Raworth
Excerpted from “Doughnut Economics.” Copyright © 2020 by Kate Raworth. Excerpted by permission of Chelsea Green Publishing, in White River Junction, Vermont. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpt from “Fully Grown” by Dietrich Vollrath
Reprinted with permission from Fully Grown: Why a Stagnant Economy Is a Sign of Success by Dietrich Vollrath, published by the University of Chicago Press. © 2020 by the University of Chicago Press. All rights reserved.
The New Yorker: “Can we have prosperity without growth?” — “In 1930, the English economist John Maynard Keynes took a break from writing about the problems of the interwar economy and indulged in a bit of futurology. In an essay entitled “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” he speculated that by the year 2030 capital investment and technological progress would have raised living standards as much as eightfold, creating a society so rich that people would work as little as fifteen hours a week, devoting the rest of their time to leisure and other ‘non-economic purposes.’”
“As striving for greater affluence faded, he predicted, ‘the love of money as a possession . . . will be recognized for what it is, a somewhat disgusting morbidity.’ This transformation hasn’t taken place yet, and most economic policymakers remain committed to maximizing the rate of economic growth.
“But Keynes’s predictions weren’t entirely off base. After a century in which G.D.P. per person has gone up more than sixfold in the United States, a vigorous debate has arisen about the feasibility and wisdom of creating and consuming ever more stuff, year after year. On the left, increasing alarm about climate change and other environmental threats has given birth to the ‘degrowth’ movement, which calls on advanced countries to embrace zero or even negative G.D.P. growth.”
The Washington Post: “Opinion: Let’s celebrate slow economic growth” — “For the United States, the 21st century has been a time of less-than-spectacular economic growth. The highest annual inflation-adjusted economic growth rate since 2010 is 2.9 percent (in 2015 and 2018). In the 2000-2009 decade, which included the Great Recession, the annual average was 1.9 percent.
“These numbers concern everyone. President Trump has said the growth rate should be ‘4, 5 and maybe even 6 percent, ultimately.’ An actual economics expert, former Obama administration treasury secretary Larry Summers, has written extensively about ‘secular stagnation,’ and identified it as a possible cause for the West’s ‘surly and dysfunctional’ politics.
“But what if slow growth instead reflects great economic success? That’s the provocative thesis of a new book, cleverly titled ‘Fully Grown,’ by economist Dietrich Vollrath of the University of Houston. Vollrath not only offers the proverbial two cheers for slower growth rates, but also explains why many oft-proposed policy solutions are not likely to rekindle rapid growth.”
This article was originally published on WBUR.org. [Copyright 2020 NPR]
