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Routledge; 2nd edition (2016)<\/strong><\/p>\n ISBN: <\/strong>\u200e<\/strong> 978-1138935419<\/strong><\/p>\n Reviewed by Ian Mowll This book challenges mainstream economic thinking that the world\u2019s economy needs to perpetually grow for the good of everyone. In particular, it says that perpetual growth is unsustainable due to environmental constraints, and it challenges the idea that more wealth produces a happier society.<\/p>\n The author advocates for a new economic system that emphasizes well-being, social equity, and environmental responsibility. One of the book\u2019s strengths is its well-researched and data-driven approach, which challenges deeply ingrained economic assumptions.<\/p>\n There are more and more books these days along similar lines. It\u2019s limits to growth idea has resonances with Kate Raworth\u2019s book Donut Economics<\/em>. Its critique of unfettered capitalism is similar to George Monbiot\u2019s book The Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism<\/em>. And there are references to the book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone <\/em>which expands on the idea that more equality (measured by the difference between those with higher and lower incomes) leads to a whole plethora of better outcomes for everyone in a society.<\/p>\n One of the key themes in the book is that collectivism is important \u2013 that is a cohesive society where there is a role for government to implement decisions for everyone\u2019s benefit. For this to happen, there needs to be a common vision in society and that is why spirituality (in a broad sense) is so important; we need a shared dream of a better world and many people ready to make it happen.<\/p>\n It\u2019s encouraging to see that this book has made such an impact and that its ideas resonate with so many people; that we are not constrained by mainstream economics and change is possible. Whilst I acknowledge that it\u2019s hard to change the direction of the super-tanker that is our current economic system, we have to start shifting towards wellbeing and away from unfettered consumption as we only have one Earth, and its resources are not limitless. This book is a helpful step in that direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Routledge; 2nd edition (2016) ISBN: \u200e 978-1138935419 Reviewed by Ian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-wellbeing","category-politics","category-practical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3830,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions\/3830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenspirit.org.uk\/bookreviews2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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