juliajubilada = julia retired |
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Notes on the 2nd edition, 2017The club of Rome’s ‘Limits to growth’ (1972) predicted running out of oil etc but it’s all happening faster than they predicted.
Cites Graeber re. debt preceding money creation and Lakoff re household debt as a metaphor for govt debt. Cites Picketty re. richest 1% getting richer when credit is cheap. Cites Minsky’s 3 stage borrowers: 1) borrow & repay 2) borrow more to repay principal 3) borrow more to pay interest – defaults create instability so regulation is needed. The easy credit & deregulation leading up to 2008 crisis all originate in allegiance to growth. Stucker & Basu (2014) chart impact of austerity in Greece and other post-crash ‘experiments’ (eg Iceland). Now growth is slowing down everywhere economists are beginning to question growth as a basis for stability. |
Notes and diagrams to download are clearer to read than here but the pdf notes don't include links & references
Relation between material wealth and happiness (also health, education, participation etc) is closer for poorer people but once you get to the “sweet spot” (see examples below )it doesn’t make much difference. |
Prosperity can be re-defined as:
· capabilities to flourish - get food, shelter, self-esteem, participation in society (Amartya Sen) · Central human capabilities—life, health, education (‘practical reason’), physical safety, affiliation (Martha Nussbaum) Also ‘ecological resiliance’ Steepest correlation of life expectancy/ infant mortality with GDP is in poorest countries but stark anomalies in eg Cuba, Costa Rica, Chile where they’re much poorer but live longer lives than in USA. Infant mortality in Armenia lower than in US despite earnings being 5% of what they earn in the US. And education (years of schooling) puts Estonia above Japan, Ireland and Norway. So the lessons from this:
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