Steady State Economy Archives – Page 7 of 17 – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

The Silver Lining of the COVID-Caused Recession is Supra-Economic

March 24, 2020/21 Comments/in Biodiversity, Brian Czech, Climate Change, Economic Growth, Environment, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

COVID-19 has done in a deadly way what steady-state economists would prescribe in a healthy way: putting the brakes on a runaway economy. In fact, the pandemic has slammed on the brakes and jammed the GDP gearstick into reverse. It has ushered us into a recession that will be pronounced and protracted. In a COVID-caused recession, it’s nature at bat, not the Fed.

In these dark times, any source of comfort is welcome.

Reply to Troy Vettese’s “Against Steady-State Economics” ¹

March 18, 2020/1 Comment/in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Consumption, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Brian Czech

by Herman Daly

Steady staters are used to being attacked by right-wing neoliberals. Attacks from left-wing neo-Marxists are new and require a reply. To put the matter simply, Marxists hate capitalism, and they mistakenly assume that steady-state economics is inherently capitalist. Vettese is a Marxist; ergo, Vettese hates steady-state economics.

To spell this out, let’s begin by giving Marx due credit for emphasizing the reality of class exploitation under all heretofore existing economic systems,

Normalizing Outbreaks in the Anthropocene: Growth Isn’t the Cure

March 10, 2020/4 Comments/in Corporate Reform, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

By James Magnus-Johnston

Death rates. Infection rates. Handwashing. Handwringing.

May I re-frame the coronavirus conversation? Although the world is currently stunned by the rapid spread of this virus across the globe, we must understand that these kinds of outbreaks are simply going to happen more often in our climate-altered world, and they highlight the fragility of our growth-or-bust industrial system. But there is a silver lining: This moment requires industrial societies to emphasize wellbeing over GDP and to witness the vulnerability of global,

Beating Teflon Trump Entails a New Perspective on GDP

March 4, 2020/8 Comments/in Brian Czech, Climate Change, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Governance, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

By Brian Czech

In the earlier months of Donald Trump’s presidency, Democrats were stunned by his popularity despite his racist rhetoric, acerbic arrogance, and international insults. Trump himself had meanly boasted that he could “shoot somebody on 5th Avenue” and not lose any votes. He knew the American political system—Dems included—worshiped at the altar of GDP growth. Trump, as the quintessential growthist, had skyrocketed to the throne of Untouchable High Priest, albeit in a sharply divided church of red and blue growthists.

Meaning and Ethics in Ecological Economics

February 19, 2020/2 Comments/in Economic Growth, Environment, Population, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

By Haydn Washington

The True Meaning of Ecological Economics

Ecological economics has a problem: Pluralism is out of control, to the extent that “ecological economics” is starting to mean different methods, approaches, and values to different people. We need to know precisely what we mean by “ecological economics,” and to settle upon an ethical framework thereof.

The original thinkers in ecological economics, such as Herman Daly, were clear that ecological economics was an economics that operated within ecological limits.

Existential Dread: We Need to Talk About our Feelings

February 12, 2020/1 Comment/in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Consumption, Economic Policy, Environment, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

By James Magnus-Johnston

Just as the smoke disperses from fire-ravaged parts of the world, the specter of ecological breakdown is creeping into humanity’s collective psyche. Whether that manifests as a bit of anxiety or full-on dread of mass extinction, we need to start talking about our feelings. If we don’t, we may avoid rather than confront the reforms needed for the planet to continue supporting life.

As a university instructor in Canada,

Degrowth Toward a Steady State Economy: Unifying Non-Growth Movements for Political Impact

February 5, 2020/14 Comments/in Brian Czech, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech and Riccardo Mastini

No later than the 1960s, scholars wrote in rigorous terms of the limits to economic growth. Europeans such as E.F. Schumacher, Americans including Herman Daly, and European-born Americans (most notably Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen and Kenneth Boulding) set the stage for later studies in ecological economics and sustainability science. Their scholarship, supplemented by the population focus of Paul Ehrlich and the modeling approach of Donella Meadows and coauthors (for the Club of Rome),

My CASSE Internship: A Unique Experience in Unsustainable Times

December 10, 2019/1 Comment/in Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Environment, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

By Ben Valdez

I don’t think it’s ever easy to consider being an unpaid intern right out of college. It’s something you don’t usually think about while you’re in school, at least from my experience, and it’s certainly not something you’re trained to aim for as a prospective graduate.

Before I came to the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy in September of 2019, I had spent the summer at home in the Los Angeles sun,

Distinguishing Capitalism from Growth

November 21, 2019/4 Comments/in Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Steady State Herald /by Brian Czech

by James Magnus-Johnston

Capitalism and growth might have similar connotations, but they have important distinctions, too. “Capitalism” has become a clumsy catch-all for any number of value-laden projections—greed, big business, innovation, accumulation, complexity, workaholism. “Growth,” meanwhile, is a landmine of technical and cultural connotations, and I’ll explore just a couple of them here.

Technically speaking, their differences seem straightforward. Growth is a material increase in economic production and consumption. Capitalism is a highly complex term,

Book Review: Falter by Bill McKibben

November 13, 2019/1 Comment/in Biodiversity, Climate Change, Religion, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

By Herman Daly

Thanks to Bill McKibben, not just for his new book but for 30 years of honest, eloquent, and insightful environmental writing and activism.

He begins Falter by pointing out that “the human game we’ve been playing has no rules and no end, but it does come with two logical imperatives. The first is to keep it going, and the second is to keep it human.”

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by Brian Czech

by Herman Daly

by Brian Czech and Riccardo Mastini

by James Magnus-Johnston