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    Steady-state economics posts

    Of watermelons and apples: climate breakdown, growth, trade, state and money (an open letter to George Monbiot)

    Eloise Sentito of These Isles | 25-Oct-2018 | 0

    Dear George, Congratulations on your contribution to the Moral Maze last week – I switched on the radio just as your volley articulating the ideological differentiation between fiscal and legal rationing fairly seared the waves. Read more

    Are you ‘radical’, and if not, why not?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 21-Oct-2018 | 0

    I’m using the original definition of the word, not its bastardisation that over the years has come to be used as a kind of insult in some circles. I’ve been called ‘too radical’, and I want to show why that’s an absurdity. Read more

    Gross Domestic Problem on World Animal Day with Brian Czech

    Brian Czech of CASSE | 07-Oct-2018 | 1

    Thursday 4th October marked World Animal Day 2018. Here, Brian Czech challenges us to face up to the big-picture, systematic erosion of wild animal welfare in the face of a seemingly continual quest for economic growth. Read more

    How the corporate banking system transfers wealth from the poor to the wealthy, without anyone noticing

    Herman Daly of CASSE | 24-Jun-2018 | 0

    Herman Daly has been one of my heroes since I read Steady State Economics as a young man. I’m re-posting a blog article of his, originally posted on the website of the Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy (CASSE) in the US, because it’s a simple description of how it concentrates wealth… Continue reading How the corporate banking system transfers wealth from the poor to the wealthy, without anyone noticing Read more

    Public debate on capitalism: what happened and what I learnt

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 22-May-2018 | 9

    You may remember that I was invited to take part in a public debate in London recently (see here) about whether capitalism is ‘the best system for a sustainable future’. I was asked to deliver the ‘no’ position. Read more

    Campaign launched to build a ‘new economy’ through a practical programme of workshops, mentoring, and live crowdfunding

    We talk about making ‘communities stronger’ and creating a ‘fairer economy.’ But these approaches are still struggling to significantly impact our society and economy Read more

    Public debate featuring yours truly: is capitalism the best system for a sustainable future?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 08-Apr-2018 | 3

    If you’re in London on April 18th, there’s a public debate you might be interested in, upstairs in a pub in Tooting. I’ve been asked to put the case against capitalism. There will be initial presentations, rebuttals, questions from the audience, and then a summing up. Read more

    Democrats, Donald Trump and the dark underbelly of economic growth

    Brian Czech of CASSE | 06-Feb-2018 | 6

    Where is real ‘opposition’ in the West when all major parties support cancerous, perpetual growth? Surely it’s time for major political figures to stand up and say that the quest for perpetual economic growth is the engine behind the destruction of the biosphere, and will eventually kill us unless we stop. Read more

    Joy in enough: awakening to a new economics

    On 18th November last year there was a one-day workshop in Sheffield called “Joy in Enough – Awakening to a New Economics”. It was delivered by Green Christian who are a multi-denominational charity that have been operating for over thirty years. Read more

    It’s worse than you think: review of Douglas Rushkoff’s ‘Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus’

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 14-Aug-2017 | 0

    Here’s an article that’s part review of the latest book  by Douglas Rushkoff (buy it – it’s excellent), part ramble about twenty-first century capitalism. Read more

    What’s the most environmentally-damaging thing that a human can do?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 18-Jul-2017 | 4

    This question is really important for us at Lowimpact.org, because we’re all about providing information and other resources on ways that people can live in a less environmentally-damaging way. So I was very interested to see that researchers at Lund University in Sweden recently put the hours in Read more

    B-corporations – yes or no?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 25-Jun-2017 | 52

    What do you consider the correct approach towards multinational corporations – tame them, or start to get rid of them? And what do we mean by ‘tame’ exactly? And what are the problems with multinational corporations in the first place? Read more

    In a perpetually-growing economy, what will limit the number of cars in the world?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 06-Jun-2017 | 2

    I come back to the subject of economic growth reasonably regularly, or to be more specific, the concept of perpetual, constant, infinite growth. And I’ll keep doing it until this absurd idea is consigned to the same historical category as phlogiston or a geocentric universe. Read more

    How money causes poverty (plus war and ecological destruction), and what could replace it

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 07-May-2017 | 57

    Exchange has always been part of the human story, whether between individuals, tribes or nations. Some people have what others don’t, due to geography or skill, and exchange is a means of getting what you don’t have, and giving what you have a surplus of. Read more

    Is democracy obsolete, and can we ever achieve it as long as we have to keep feeding ‘the beast’?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 16-Mar-2017 | 3

    In the West, there’s a word that usually accompanies ‘democracy’, and that word is ‘liberal’. Liberal democracies – that’s what we have in the West. That’s liberal, as in liberty / freedom; and that’s certainly what classical liberalism stood for in its infancy. Read more

    How to misrepresent Adam Smith: review of P. J. O’Rourke’s ‘On the Wealth of Nations’

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 14-Feb-2017 | 0

    I don’t know if you’re familiar with P. J., but he’s an excellent writer, and he’s extremely, acerbically funny. With this book, as with his Give War a Chance, several times he made me spit my tea out and have to stop to wipe tea off the page. Read more

    Is the quest for perpetual economic growth the witch-burning of our times, and could this be the year we start to challenge it?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 01-Jan-2017 | 10

    Johannes Kepler was one of the major figures in the 17th century Scientific Revolution. In his day, people were grappling with the question of whether the earth was the centre of the universe, as the Church said it was, or whether it was just another planet, revolving around the Sun Read more

    David Fleming’s ‘Lean Logic’ and ‘Surviving the Future’, and why they’re important

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 23-Sep-2016 | 21

    I attended the launch of two books at Daunt Bookshop in Chelsea on Wednesday evening. David Fleming died in 2010, and now his friend Shaun Chamberlin has edited his magnum opus, Lean Logic, and Chelsea Green have published it. Read more

    Revisiting my old university economics textbook – how did I ever fall for this nonsense?

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 08-Sep-2016 | 8

    I haven’t opened my old university economics textbook (Economics, by David Begg, Stanley Fischer and Rudiger Dornbusch) since the 1980s, so I was curious to see how I would respond to what I was taught 30 years ago. Read more

    Moving forward without the EU: clouds & silver linings

    Dave Darby of Lowimpact.org | 04-Jul-2016 | 2

    I think we all have stories about mad conversations we’ve had about Brexit since the referendum (or is it just me?). I was called a racist, for example, for suggesting that the UK is nowhere near the top of the league of ‘most xenophobic countries’, and I’ve been amazed by the vitriol this has stirred… Continue reading Moving forward without the EU: clouds & silver linings Read more

    There’s a crash coming – a slap from Mother Nature. This isn’t pessimistic; it’s realistic.

    The human impact on nature and on each other is accelerating and needs systemic change to reverse.

    We’re not advocating poverty, or a hair-shirt existence. We advocate changes that will mean better lives for almost everyone.

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