God of all mercy please protect and save us from the madness of Liz Truss's Growthmania
From where I stand, it seems that humiliating and nearly bankrupting the country was not enough for her, she is now determined to fully destroy our mother nature and our sacred earth too.
‘Liz Truss’s growth mantra is vacuous and tin-eared.’*
…Enough is enough. I am not a robot. I am a human being with humane values. I want growth in values that gives me hope, heals me and shows me what it means to be truly human. Carpe diem!
Photo: Via The Spectator
I was horrified, but not surprised at all, that the 45-day prime minister, Liz Truss, is about to launch a new international task force (the Growth Commission) to supposedly revive flagging economic growth in the West. More on this below.
"I have three priorities for our economy: growth, growth and growth."- Liz Truss, addressing the Conservative Party Conference on 5 October 2022, soon before the same Tory Party that had appointed her prime minister, decided that she is up to no good and not fit for office and got rid of her on 20 October 2022
Nota bene
I was once a valueless, neoliberal economist. But today I am a changed man, a recovered economist for the common good, with a different set of priorities, values and wisdom that I once lacked.
Today I say it loud and clear: We need to change the economic conversation urgently for the future of our humanity and survival. We need to degrowth and concentrate fully on values that make us truly human. Look all around you, see the destruction and devastation. See the rapid rise in physical and mental distress and illness.
Rise and say: Enough is enough. I am not a robot. I am a human with humane values. I want growth in values that gives me hope, heals me and shows me what it means to be human. Carpe diem!
Photo: bing.com
A Look at the calamity of Liz Truss’s endless growth ideology and her so-called Growth Commission: Truss to convene taskforce to tackle slumping global growth
The pertinent questions at this point are: Growth in what and for what? Growth in greed, profiteering and corruption? Environmental degradation and destruction? Sleaze, Cronyism, deceit, clownism, buffonism, cash in hand for friends and party supporters, outsourcing, back-door privatisation? Cheating, lying, mistrust, fear, depression, anxiety, poverty, homelessness, inequality, food banks, hunger, despair, hopelessness and more?
Or growth for better health and wellbeing, education, healthcare, housing, for a more sustained and valued mother nature and sacred earth, for kindness, fairness, justice, humanity, trustworthiness, hopefulness, moral integrity, accountability, humility, professionalism in discharging public duties and service, honesty, beauty, wisdom, compassion, empathy, dignity, comradeship, solidarity, cooperation, activism, volunteerism, happiness, laughter, joy, spirituality, taking action in the interest of the common good,...? The missing ingredients that make us truly human and our life journey rewarding and meaningful.
Dear Liz Truss,
Photo: Erik Carter/ The Atlantic; Getty
You and your neoliberal economist friends have brought the world to its knees, you have collectively destroyed everything of value and goodness.
Your kind of economists have devalued and debased economics and economic education. They have by and large given us the most 'educated' thieves and charlatans, all with MBAs and PhDs:The Theft of the Century by the Most 'Educated Thieves'- All with MBAs and PhDs and crashing the world all around them in 2008.
Please, please, the lot of you, go away and leave us alone to heal our lives and our world that the lot of you have destroyed.
My Plea to Liz Truss: Our Country Needs Caring, Healing and Transformation
The Fall and Humiliation of Liz Truss should Herald a New Beginning
Truly Shocking: Can this be what Liz’s Growth Commission could be all about?
Revealed: Liz Truss’s unpublished growth agenda
‘In this week’s issue of The Spectator, Katy Balls reveals what Liz Truss would have done in her quest for growth had her mini-Budget not blown up. She would have gone on to launch an eight-point ‘autumn of action’. There were to be eight ‘follow-up moments’ revealing Truss and her Chancellor’s plans for supply-side reforms on: financial services, business deregulation, housing & planning, immigration, mobile & broadband, food & farming, childcare and energy.
Kwarteng and Truss were out of office before they had time to announce them. Now, The Spectator has obtained the plans and can exclusively publish the draft document in full: Revealed: Liz Truss’s unpublished growth agenda
The Poisonous and Destructive Endless Growth for Nothing Good: A pick from our GCGI archive
Pity those who are trapped in the vicious circle of the destructive endless economic growth
Photo: Li Wang via Smithsonian Magazine
We have to look beyond the madness: we should invest in everyday services to create a society run for collective good
The Growth Delusion and Confusion, The GDP Measurement: lies, damned lies and statistics
We must do better, much better. Why?
Because all said and done, Love, Trust, Respect and Gratitude Trumps Economics
Economic Growth: The Index of Misery
The Fallacy of Economic Growth: In Praise of Robert F. Kennedy
The Fallacy of Economic Growth: In Praise of Herman Daly
The Fallacy of Economic Growth: In Praise of Vandana Shiva
How Much is Enough? Money and the Good Life
Small is Beautiful: The Wisdom of E.F. Schumacher
Enough is Enough: The economics of enough
How Much is Enough? Money and the Good Life
Hello Fat Cats! Do you fancy a dialogue for the Common Good?
Photo: Via Quotes Gram
To read more see below:
To Save the Planet, Should We Really Be Moving Slower?
It’s time to vote for happiness and well-being, not mere economic growth. Here’s why
‘Truss seems to care nothing for the wellbeing of ordinary people. In fact, she is not calling for growth, but for greed. I would be happy to join any anti-greed coalition – one that calls for the growth of human wellbeing and life expectancy; the growth of understanding of the catastrophic crisis that the world is facing through ecocide and of interventions that can prevent it; and growth in capacity of welfare services, such as the NHS, that meet human need.
Truss’s policies will not deliver for the people, but will rather hasten ecological breakdown, create mass poverty and lead to many avoidable and premature deaths through what can only be described as “social murder”.-Dr David Scott, The Open University, via The Guardian*
How may we change and build a better world?
Can we become the architects of our own destiny and prosperity?
Moving from darkness to light, from despair to hope
Photo by Joshua Woroniecki
YES WE CAN, by debunking the complicated, impossible to understand theories that for too long have poisoned, stupefied and imprisoned our creativity and imagination. Although the crises of our own making are deep and complicated, nonetheless, the answers lie in simplicity, hope, beauty and wisdom.
These are the times when we desperately need inspiring and healing words of wisdom, hope and beauty.
A Gift from our GCGI archive to help set us free from chaos and despair, so that we may achieve inner peace and spiritual calm, a more generous and rewarding imagination, inspiring and empowering us to take action in the interest of the common good.
Life Lessons I've Learned in a World of Conflicting Ideas and Aspirations:
Journey to Healing: Let Me Know What is Essential
Must-read Books on the tragedy of the endless economic growth, destroying our environment and ecosystem, as well as making us less happy, suffering from physical/ mental illness and the poverty of beauty, creativity and imagination:
Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future
Photo:Via Wild by Nature
The bestselling author of The End of Nature issues an impassioned call to arms for an economy that creates community and ennobles our lives
‘In this powerful and provocative manifesto, Bill McKibben offers the biggest challenge in a generation to the prevailing view of our economy. For the first time in human history, he observes, more is no longer synonymous with better--indeed, for many of us, they have become almost opposites. McKibben puts forward a new way to think about the things we buy, the food we eat, the energy we use, and the money that pays for it all. Our purchases, he says, need not be at odds with the things we truly value.
McKibben's animating idea is that we need to move beyond growth as the paramount economic ideal and pursue prosperity in a more local direction, with cities, suburbs, and regions producing more of their own food, generating more of their own energy, and even creating more of their own culture and entertainment. He shows this concept blossoming around the world with striking results, from the burgeoning economies of India and China to the more mature societies of Europe and New England. For those who worry about environmental threats, he offers a route out of the worst of those problems; for those who wonder if there isn't something more to life than buying, he provides the insight to think about one's life as an individual and as a member of a larger community.
McKibben offers a realistic, if challenging, scenario for a hopeful future. Deep Economy makes the compelling case that the more we nurture the essential humanity of our economy, the more we will recapture our own.’- Read more and buy the book HERE
Prosperity without Growth: Foundations for the Economy of Tomorrow
What can prosperity possibly mean in a world of environmental and social limits?
Photo: Via CUSP
‘The publication of Prosperity without Growth was a landmark in the sustainability debate. Tim Jackson’s piercing challenge to conventional economics openly questioned the most highly prized goal of politicians and economists alike: the continued pursuit of exponential economic growth. Its findings provoked controversy, inspired debate and led to a new wave of research building on its arguments and conclusions.
This substantially revised and re-written edition updates those arguments and considerably expands upon them. Jackson demonstrates that building a ‘post-growth’ economy is a precise, definable and meaningful task. Starting from clear first principles, he sets out the dimensions of that task: the nature of enterprise; the quality of our working lives; the structure of investment; and the role of the money supply. He shows how the economy of tomorrow may be transformed in ways that protect employment, facilitate social investment, reduce inequality and deliver both ecological and financial stability.
Seven years after it was first published, Prosperity without Growth is no longer a radical narrative whispered by a marginal fringe, but an essential vision of social progress in a post-crisis world. Fulfilling that vision is simply the most urgent task of our times.’- Read more and buy the book HERE
Beyond Growth: The Economics of Sustainable Development
Photo: via amazon.com
‘Herman Daly is probably the most prominent advocate of the need for a change in economic thinking in response to the environmental crisis. An iconoclast economist who has worked as a renegade insider at the World Bank in recent years, Daly has argued for overturning some basic economic assumptions. He has a wide and growing reputation among environmentalists, both inside and outside the academy. Daly argues that if sustainable development means anything at this historical moment, it demands that we conceive of the economy as part of the ecosystem and, as a result, give up on the ideal of economic growth. We need a global understanding of developing welfare that does not entail expansion. These simple ideas turn out to be fundamentally radical concepts, and basic ideas about economic theory, poverty, trade, and population have to be discarded or rethought, as Daly shows in careful, accessible detail
These are questions with enormous practical consequences. Daly argues that there is a real fight to control the meaning of "sustainable development," and that conventional economists and development thinkers are trying to water down its meaning to further their own ends. Beyond Growth is an argument that will turn the debate around.’- Read more and buy the book HERE
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Photo: In the skies, by Dominika Koszowska/ Via The Guardian