The New Economic Foundation (NEF) takes on a big challenge in creating macroeconomic models that aim for fulfilling and sustainable lives instead of unending growth (http://www.neweconomics.org/projects/new-economic-model).
“There is nothing ‘natural’ about our current economic arrangements. They have been consciously designed to achieve a simple objective: growth. But growth is not making us happier, it is creating dysfunctional and unequal societies and if it continues will make large parts of the planet unfit for
human habitation.
Standard models take no account of resource use and environmental constraints, and are blind to social outcomes in terms of equity and, of course, human well being.
Our approach turns this on its head. We will start with the hard outcomes we need – environmental sustainability; equitable economic justice; and high levels of human well-being – link these to relevant economic determinants within the model (aggregate output, income distribution and working hours, respectively, for example) and to ‘reverse engineer’ what this would imply for the levels and types of
differing inputs.”
In the great transition that lies ahead for mankind, how much will be changed by the individual consciousness and how much by this type of pervasive systemic change? At In100y we focus on the interplay of these two factors and how they can be integrated in the long run.