BOOK REVIEW: Prosperity without Growth by Tim Jackson

He explains how ‘free-market’ orthodoxy, deregulation and laissez-faire politics have dragged the economy away from its role of ensuring prosperity for the many, evidenced by the high correlation between health and social problems and rising inequality in OECD nations.

While it is obvious that endless growth in a resource-limited environment is logically impossible, the adjustments that could save humanity from disaster are not yet being enacted. ‘Prosperity without Growth’ draws on his own work and that of other economists, psychologists and social scientists to point the way to a new economic model that one could perhaps name ‘post-growth capitalism’.

His prescriptions for change include returning control of the money supply to the state, sharing of working hours, longer-term investment in services and natural capital, counter-cyclical spending by governments and more careful regulation of the financial markets. This is an important book.

Prosperity without Growth by Tim Jackson is published by Routledge. Price: £95 hardback; £15.99 paperback; £14.39 eBook.

About the Author

Antony David

A chemistry graduate, Antony spent most of his career using and then making equipment for the music and broadcast industries. He was managing director of Oxford-based electronics and software company, Solid State Logic.