From a Failed Growth Economy to a Steady-State Economy

This past week was the United States Society for Ecological Economics bi-annual conference (at American University near Washington DC). Herman Daly was honored for his many and longstanding contributions. He also gave an amazing speech which he has graciously allowed us to reproduce as a guest post on theoildrum. In it he outlines 10 prescriptions for changing the course of our current socio-economic system, along the lines of the steady state themes he has been writing about for decades. I feel like keeping it on our main page for a week straight – it isn’t perfect (nothing is), but these are the concepts that should be percolating among our nations/worlds decision-makers – please read it and pass it on. I sincerely hope ideas like these will soon be acknowledged not only as mainstream but as urgent – in the opinion of many it is past time for Herman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics….

A steady-state economy is incompatible with continuous growth