“We Need To Talk About Steady State Economics”

Guest speaker Anne RYAN from Feasta: The Foundation for The Economics of Sustainability

“We face global overheating and associated climate breakdown; biodiversity destruction and ecosystem collapse; the extinction of animal populations; pollution and associated health problems; enormous waste; extremist politics; severe inequality, and human and animal suffering. All of these problems are interrelated and huge changes are needed if we are to avert and alleviate them.
One essential change is to cap global economic production so as to fit within the planet’s ecology in order to reach a steady state. Steady state is about a planned contraction, or degrowth, reducing economic demands to sustainable levels in a slower, more careful journey of no return. A steady state economy values longevity along with sufficiency, and seeks qualitative improvement rather than quantitative increase.
This workshop will introduce the concepts of degrowth and steady state, along with practical policies that could help us get there, such as basic income, fossil-fuel cap and share, money as a public resource and land-value taxes. The format will be highly participative and will elicit discussion and contributions from the participants.

Feasta, the Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability. Feasta aims to identify the characteristics (economic, cultural and environmental) of a truly sustainable society, articulate how the necessary transition can be effected and promote the implementation of the measures required for this purpose.
Anne B Ryan, who will facilitate the workshop, is a member and former trustee of Feasta. She is also a joint coordinator of Basic Income Ireland and author of Enough is Plenty: Public and Private Policies for the 21st Century (Hants, O Books, 2009).”

Here is the link for the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/435332107054122/