An insatiable thirst
What makes our economic system different from most other economic systems in history is its focus on ever increasing levels of industrial production, consumption and accumulation. Or what is the same, the relentless pursuit of rising Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
"No matter how wealthy a country becomes, its economy must keep expanding. No matter the cost. Forever.”
In the last 60 years, global GDP has grown almost 4% each year. This results in an exponential curve that escaletes with astonishing speed. For instance, a 4% growth rate means doubling the size of the global economy every 19 years, and then doubling it again from that already doubled state, repeatedly. So that the World’s GDP in 2025 is more than 8 times bigger than it was in 1960. Following this trajectory, by 2060, the GDP could be 32 times what it was only a centuty ago.
Global GDP 1960-2060
This wouldn’t be any problem if GDP was generated out of nowhere, but that’s not the case. GDP is intrinsically linked to energy and resource consumption— a relationship that has persisted throughout history. The more we produce, the more energy, resources, and waste the global economy burns through each year. The following two images can give us a grisp of this fact.
As a result, we’ve already blown past the safe limits scientists have identified for the planet—pushing ecosystems to the brink and causing serious harm to life on Earth.
Since it is undeniable that people’s lives are generally better now than in the past, there is a strong belief that growth is what has delivered the wellbeing we enjoy today.
However, scientists and historians are increasingly disconnecting this progress from economic growth itself, attributing it instead to access to essential services and goods, as well as to the distribution of wealth. Furthermore, beyond a certain point, more GDP is not necessarily linked to improvements in human welfare.
One recurring example here is life expectancy: countries with higher GDP tend to have higher live expectancies. It has long been believed that one is a consequence of the other, but historians now emphasise a different factord: sanitation. Empirical data from the United States show that clean water alone was responsible for nearly half the total mortality reduction in major cities, three-quarters of the reduction of infant mortality, and nearly two thirds of the reduction in child mortality.
What has the greatest impact on life expectancy is access to public services.
Another significant factor in increasing life expectancy is universal health coverage and child vaccination. Once these are met, education, —especially women education— plays a crucial role in ensuring longer life expectancies.
If economic growth is not the primary driver of improving our lives, and given the catastrophic impacts it’s having on life on Earth, it is rational to seek and implement new ways of organising our society and our economy. This is precisely what Beyond Growth aims to achieve!