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Matt Orsagh's avatar

Don't fear Jack. I'm building up to Herman and Ecological economics. Stay tuned.

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Jack Santa Barbara's avatar

Yes, Donut Economics is a useful way of looking at economics. It is a popularized version of Herman Daly's Ecological Economics. The latter is a much more conceptually rigorous reformulation of economic theory, putting it in both an ecological and ethical context. It is ecological economics that has identified the concept of a steady state economy - the goal of degrowth. For a very readable overview of ecological economics (for non-economists) it would be hard to beat Peter Victor's "Herman DAay's Economics for a Full World" - a great resource for activists, especially those interested in degrowth.

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Ulrich Teidelt's avatar

There are even other possibilities to think economics, for instance to use the mathematcal theory of "Faltung"(convolution) in a way Anders Liebermann (Physicist) described in his book "Convolution of the World" with many suggest good to be practised in political and everyday life.

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Tony Povilitis's avatar

Spot on!

"The economics that I learned, and that most people in the world learned doesn’t ever consider that the axiom “too much of a good thing” may apply to the human experience.

Economists are the ultimate permissive parents who believe in just letting the kids (markets) run free and see what happens.

Children need boundaries, or they grow up to be assholes."

Economies need boundaries, or they grow up to be assholes.

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