Supply Shock
Economic Growth at the Crossroads and the Steady State Solution
By Brian Czech
© 2020, Steady State Press
ISBN: 978-1-7329933-0-3
Format: Paperback
“This is a brave book that raises questions we all need to ask and try to answer. Czech proposes the evolution of a revolution, thinking and feeling and working our way toward a fair, sustainable, constructive social order in America and all around the world. The style is clear, cogent, honest, stimulating, free of clutter, and often amusing; it’s boredom-free. You’ll enjoy it.”
—Neil Patterson, president, Neil Patterson Productions; past president, W.H. Freeman and Company, co-founder of Benjamin-Cummings, Worth, and Scientific American Books
“Supply Shock clearly describes the heart of what ails us–a zombielike addiction to economic growth everywhere at all costs. Brian Czech brilliantly dissects the economic theories, models, and mindsets that are diminishing the human prospect while calling it ‘progress’. . . . King Midas would have understood the point, as we will someday. There are biophysical limits to economic and population growth and we ignore them at our peril.”
—David W. Orr is Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics and Senior Adviser to the President, Oberlin College; author of seven books; Lyndhurst Prize winner
“The past century of explosive population and economic growth, a period that people today take to be the norm, is actually the single most anomalous period in human history–and it threatens to do us in! Growth is normally just the juvenile phase of the life cycle. With maturity, growth slows but development continues as living things become better adapted to their socio-ecological contexts. In Supply Shock, Brian Czech graphically shows how the growth-based status quo is destroying the ecological basis of human existence and eloquently describes an alternative path to true economic maturity. A dynamically-evolving but non-growing steady-state economy offers humanity’s best hope for achieving a just and secure sustainability within the means of nature.”
—Bill Rees, author, Professor Emeritus of Human Ecology and Ecological Economics, University of British Columbia School of Community and Regional Planning, and co-winner of the 2012 Boulding Prize in Ecological Economics and a 2012 Blue Planet Prize.
Politicians, economists, and Wall Street would have us believe that limitless economic expansion is the Holy Grail, and that there is no conflict between growing the economy and protecting the environment. Supply Shock debunks these widely accepted myths and demonstrates that we are in fact navigating the end of the era of economic growth, and that the only sustainable alternative is the development of a steady state economy.
Starting with a refreshingly accessible, comprehensive critique of economic growth, the author engages readers in an enormous topic that affects everyone in every country. Publishers Weekly favorably compared Brian Czech to Carl Sagan for popularizing their difficult subjects; Supply Shock shows why.
Czech presents a compelling alternative to growth based on keen scientific, economic, and political insights including:
- The “trophic theory of money”
- The overlooked source of technological progress that prevents us from reconciling growth and environmental protection
- Bold yet practical policies for establishing a steady state economy
Supply Shock leaves no doubt that the biggest idea of the twentieth century—economic growth—has become the biggest problem of the twenty-first. Required reading for anyone concerned about the world our children and grandchildren will inherit, this landmark work lays a solid foundation for a new economic model, perhaps in time for preventing global catastrophes; certainly in time for lessening the damages.
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