{"id":2681,"date":"2011-10-05T20:46:33","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T01:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/?p=2681"},"modified":"2018-08-16T15:51:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T20:51:35","slug":"memo-to-the-occupied-movement-a-post-growth-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/?p=2681","title":{"rendered":"Memo to the #Occupied Movement (A Post Growth Economy)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted<\/a> from the website of the Post-Carbon Institute<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a fact that’s hard for most Americans to swallow: economic growth is over<\/strong>. Given the finite nature of our planet and its resources, the recent trend of global economic expansion was destined to end. No stimulus package or slashing of social programs is going to flip the economy back to an expansionary trajectory. We\u2019ve hit the proverbial wall, and this will be the defining reality of our lives from now on.<\/p>\n

The growth-seeking political-economic system has failed us. Today that system is dominated by Wall Street. \u201cGoldman Sachs rules the world,\u201d trader Alessio Rastani told us in a now-viral BBC interview. I met people like Rastani in researching my book, The End of Growth<\/em>. At one lavish conference, 800 global investors packed a hotel ballroom to consider climate change. There was no talk of how to avert or mitigate floods and droughts. Instead, the discussion focused on profiting from warming with \u2014 no joke \u2014 weather derivatives. These folks were just doing their job, despite any private feelings of concern, remorse, or dread. And each was getting paid enough to single-handedly fund a midsize school district.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Both Wall Street and Washington are trying to do something impossible: grow human consumption forever in a world of limited energy, minerals, water, topsoil, and biodiversity, all while protecting and expanding the riches of the top one percent. If economic growth is over, that means we can no longer count on a rising tide to lift all boats. Under these conditions, extreme income inequality is not just unfair, it is socially unsustainable.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strategic to bring protest to Wall Street rather than Washington. We must go directly to the crime scene \u2014 not with a request for reforms, but with an arrest warrant from the people.<\/p>\n

You courageous people in the #occupy movement are absolutely right in saying the system is broken, greedy, and unfair. But when our discussion turns to replacing the current system, we\u2019ve got to embrace a bigger view of reality than the one held by stock traders and politicians. It’s not just our wealth they want to control, it’s our vision for what is both possible and necessary. We need a post-growth economy that works both for people (all of them) and for the rest of nature: a localized economy based on renewable resources harvested at nature\u2019s rates of replenishment, not a fossil-fueled global economy driven by the imperative of ever-higher returns on investment.<\/p>\n

There will be life after growth \u2014 and it can be a better life if our nation\u2019s priority is the quality of life of our people and the integrity of the biosphere, rather than stock prices and corporate profits.<\/p>\n

With support,<\/p>\n

Richard Heinberg
\nSenior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute
\nwww.postcarbon.org<\/p>\n

For more information about the Post Carbon Institute, please click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cross-posted from the website of the Post-Carbon Institute. Here\u2019s a fact that’s hard for most Americans to swallow: economic growth is over. Given the finite nature of our planet and its resources, the recent trend of global economic expansion was destined to end. No stimulus package or slashing of social programs is going to flip […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":577,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[79],"tags":[566,666,565,305],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/577"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2681"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2690,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2681\/revisions\/2690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.progressivefox.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}