Steady State Herald – Page 4 of 24 – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

We Asked for Science. We Got Sustain-a-Babble.

May 2, 2024/11 Comments/in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Economic Growth, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

Editor’s Note

CASSE encourages members and readers to hold their government agencies to account on the conflict between economic growth and environmental protection. Last week, Brian Czech presented Gag-Ordered No More to the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome, concluding with recommendations for engaging agency directors. We follow up this week with a letter from the Qualicum Institute (British Columbia) to Canada’s Minister of Environment and Climate Change,

Introducing the Commission on Economic Sustainability Act

April 25, 2024/2 Comments/in Daniel Wortel-London, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Gary Gardner

by Daniel Wortel-London

What U.S. federal agency is responsible for identifying and reducing the environmental and social costs of economic growth? None, really. The government has plenty of agencies and programs devoted to conservation, natural capital accounting, “green” industrial policy, and just transitions. But none address the elephant in the room: economic growth. Growth is what causes a nation’s ecological footprint to exceed its biocapacity.

Sortition for a Steady State Economy?

April 18, 2024/6 Comments/in Gary Gardner, Governance, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

In my frustration over humanity’s sluggish response to the urgent issues of our time, I find a bit of hope in an idea championed by the philosopher John Rawls. He had a simple and appealing suggestion for shifting people’s preferences in the direction of the common good.

Rawls proposed that anyone deliberating about public matters–legislators, officials, citizens, and others–start from behind a “veil of ignorance,” that hides from them their place in society.

Water Theft in the Heartland: The Case of Tippecanoe County

April 11, 2024/3 Comments/in Dave Rollo, Economic Growth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Water /by Gary Gardner

by Dave Rollo

Imagine a landscape with some of the richest wildlife habitats in North America. Settlements are scarce and water is plentiful. Birds dot the skies, mammals abound on the ground, and fishes fill the rivers and lakes.

That’s Tippecanoe County, Indiana. In 1800.

The county’s transformation over the past two centuries would make it unrecognizable to its original inhabitants. Today, much of Tippecanoe consists of flat plains of fertile soils.

Introducing the Mileage Fee Act

April 4, 2024/6 Comments/in Daniel Wortel-London, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Daniel Wortel-London

Economies that operate within planetary boundaries are likely to be heavily localized compared to economies today. Planners will need to shift modes of transportation and redesign cities. Businesses will need to shorten supply chains. This is because freight and passenger travel impact the environment extensively. Respecting planetary boundaries requires that we create economies that do not rely heavily on long-distance travel.

To help accomplish this goal,

Climate Engineering: Doubling Down on Bad Habits

March 28, 2024/9 Comments/in Climate Change, Environment, Gary Gardner, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Technology /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

Social psychologists tell us it takes about 66 days to form a new habit. In my experience that’s only half true. Sixty-six days to form a good habit, yes, but about 66 hours to form a bad one. If I reach for a donut at breakfast, then do the same the next two days, I seal the deal and establish a habit of bad eating.

Keeping the County Great: Rappahannock’s Steady State

March 21, 2024/1 Comment/in Dave Rollo, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Dave Rollo

It would be difficult to match the pastoral majesty of northwest Virginia, with its rolling hills covered in forests and prime farmland at the northern foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The region boasts the Shenandoah Valley to the west and Shenandoah National Park (SNP). Sitting at the eastern doorstep of the Park is Rappahannock County, part of the Piedmont region of the state,

Debt, Deficits, and Warranted Money

March 14, 2024/3 Comments/in Brian Czech, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Food and Agriculture, Inflation, Monetary Policy, Money and Investments, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Gary Gardner

by Brian Czech

If you recognize the damages done by a bloating economy, you’ll be alarmed by the global GDP meter, which hit the existentially menacing threshold of $100 trillion in 2022. If that doesn’t give you a dose of distress, try the global debt clock. Then, for a dizzying dose indeed, check the casino-like combination of debt and GDP maintained by “US Debt Clock.”

Almost all readers,

Introducing the Salary Cap Act

March 7, 2024/12 Comments/in Daniel Wortel-London, Economic Policy, Environment, Inequality, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Wealth /by Gary Gardner

by Daniel Wortel-London

The daily news regularly features commentary about the outrageous and growing income inequality in the USA. The data support the outrage:

In 1965, the CEO-to-worker salary ratio at the average U.S. company was 21-to-1. Today that ratio is 344-to-1.
In 2022, CEO pay at 100 S&P 500 companies averaged $15.3 million, while median worker pay averaged only $31, 672, according to an Institute of Policy Studies analysis.

Befriending Boundaries

March 1, 2024/4 Comments/in Gary Gardner, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Wellbeing /by Gary Gardner

by Gary Gardner

One of the most difficult adjustments industrial-country citizens will make in the steady state economy is accepting limits on our activities. Steady state economies will not be the Wild West, beyond the frontier where anything goes. We will learn to live within limits, a difficult reality for peoples accustomed to an open-ended understanding of freedom. In a “full world” where we bump up against the limits of our planet’s resources,