The Good Society without Growth

"A growth imperative doesn’t exist in nature, except in the case of living organisms that have yet to reach maturity. When maturity is attained, however, growth stops. So why should it be that human society and economy never reach adulthood? Well, human population numbers continue to grow. Millions of people live in poverty and face life-long unemployment or marginal work. For their sakes, growth is highly desirable. But what is the situation in rich countries? Here too, people tend to call for ever more growth. But this is truly not the only option, as Reinhard Loske rightly demonstrates. I am grateful that he wrote this book, consisting of an older text from 2010 that evoked strong responses among so many people and the newer essay offering reasonable and reassuring answers to his critics. Of course, other literature exists on this theme, e.g. from Tim Jackson and Peter Victor, to name only two. Further afield, the mountain kingdom of Bhutan is experimenting with an economic model to replace GDP by a “happiness index”. Such approaches are both enlightening and invigorating. Yet Reinhard Loske goes further. He is at home in the world of politics where you always have to explain your doings to the electorate. He recognises the intelligent and less intelligent objections to his abandonment of the growth imperative and responds to these in a comprehensible way." (From the Foreword by Ernst Ulrich von Weizäcker, Co-President of the Club of Rome)