Trumpeted by the left and the right, economic growth is the only goal that all participants in capitalism agree upon. Yet, if growth does not stop, it will eventually destroy our environment, our food supply and ourselves. In The Growth Illusion, Richard Douthwaite proves that economic growth doesn't make us better off.
Author: RIchard Douthwaite
Publisher: Council Oak Books, Tulsa OK
ISBN: 0-933031-74-2
Libraries: Alternative
Year: 1993
Enjoyable and readable, yet as thorough as academic text, The Growth Illusion is the best book on its subject. Published by the Irish Green Party after their 1989 victory, Douthwaite's book is mostly about Britain, Ireland, and Europe, which makes it all the more fascinating to the American reader.
Capitalism, as we know it, requires economic growth for its survival -- politicians are under tremendous pressure to promise an increase in the Gross National Product (GNP.) Yet, the GNP is a flawed measure: medical costs caused by toxic chemicals add to the GNP, while the loss of irreplacable resources such as old growth forests do not subtract. More realistic measures show that our wealth hasn't increased since the 1970's.
Doutwaite tells the history of the British economy from the 1700's until the 1980's. Britain's economy grew rapidly up until about 1850, in a process that forced peasants off the land into destitution in the city. Between the two world wars, Britain made some effort to distribute wealth from the rich to the poor, but those gains were taken back by Thatcher government when it joined with the Reagan government in a brutal war against inflation. Automation has made large profits for investors, but put millions out of work, requiring European governments to spend heavily on welfare.
Economic growth has brought with it an increase in chronic illness, thanks to processed foods, air pollution, and stress at work. Along with increased unemployment came an eightfold increase in crime and a soaring divorce rate.
The growth imperative forces firms to adopt new technologies before their impacts are known, leading to environmental disasters such as the ozone hole and PCB contamination. The most serious challenge today is the greenhouse effect, caused by the use of fossil fuels endemic to our economy. Our survival depends on controlling the side-effect of technology, and, ultimately, stopping innovations which cause harm to soceity and the environment.
In several chapters, Douthwaite discusses the effects of economic growth on the Netherlands, India and Ireland. The twelfth richest and most densely populated nation on Earth, intensive agriculture in the Netherlands has polluted waterways, contributing to a collapse in the fish catch. Although Ghandi advocated the principle of sarvodoya (the welfare of all) , after his death, India pursued the development of chemical agriculture and hydroelectric dams that destroyed farmland, impoverished peasants even as the Indian GNP increased fourfold. Finally, Douthwaite tells the story of Ireland, which lost millions due to starvation and emigration as it was incorporated into the British economy.
Douthwaite has little room left to talk about solutions, but he does take up the case of the Amish, who've intentionally chosen which aspects of modern life they'd like to adopt. Like most authors on globalization, he expects the global economy to collapse, and hopes that local economies will rise from the ashes. He elaborates much more on possible solutions in his second book, Short Circuit.
