The Growth Delusion

A provocative critique of the pieties and fallacies of our obsession with economic growthWe live in a society in which a priesthood of technically trained economists, wielding impenetrable mathematical formulas, set the framework for public debate. Ultimately, it is the economists who set the agenda for how much we can spend on our schools, public libraries, and defense, to how much unemployment is acceptable to whether it is right to print money or to bail out profligate banks. The backlash we are witnessing suggests that people are turning against the economists and their faulty representation of our lives. Despite decades of steady economic growth, many citizens feel more pessimistic than ever, and are voting for candidates who voice undisguised contempt for the technocratic elite. For too long, economics have spoken in a language which fails to resonate with people's lived experience, and we are now living with the consequences.In this powerful...