These are the CASSE blog articles on economic policy.
Herman Daly reviews Kerryn Higgs’ Collision Course (Endless Growth on a Finite Planet), finding her explanation of the ascendancy of the weaker anti-Limits position constitutes a kick in the head for those of us who believe in the persuasive power of reasoned argument.
Some politicians will go quite far to cling to an aging growth-at-all-costs narrative.
Whether or not you like President Obama or his policy preferences, you have to acknowledge his consistency. Even those with “zero regard” for the president confess, “At least Obama is consistent.”
But not consistently. There is one issue, at least, on which he hasn’t held still, moving in and out like an octopus in a sunken ship. That issue is the relationship between economic growth and environmental protection.
Magnus-Johnston explains how these investments are funded, and how it exacerbates our economy’s growth imperative.
The population problem should be considered from the point of view of all populations–populations of both humans and their things–if we are going to achieve a steady state economy.
Herman Daly explains how we can use prices now as tools for rationing a fixed predetermined flow of resources, rather than determining the volume of resources taken from nature, or the physical scale of the economic subsystem.
Our current economic policy goal is not fit for a finite and entropic world. But what would our economic policy goal be in a steady state economy?
Our economy faces a futility limit, ecological catastrophe limit, and an economic limit. Fortunately, the economic limit will likely be the first we encounter; hopefully we can implement a steady state economy before the others are reached!
When individual action is too little, and national policy reform will be too late, community-based movement may be just right.
Daly challenges the assertion that a steady-state economy is inherently capitalistic and must be instead be based on a socialist system.
