Economists Propose 'Post-Growth' Model to Tackle Poverty and Climate Crises

A collective of prominent economists, including Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Thomas Piketty, has unveiled a new economic roadmap advocating for a 'post-growth' strategy to address intertwined global challenges of poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation. The proposed framework, developed with input from UN agencies and grassroots organizations, directly challenges the prevailing economic model reliant on perpetual growth. The economists argue that current economic systems, while generating unprecedented wealth for a minority, simultaneously create manufactured scarcity for a significant portion of the global population. They highlight that approximately one-tenth of the world lives in extreme poverty, lacking access to essential necessities like food, housing, and healthcare. Concurrently, the planet faces increasing ecological strain from climate-induced events such as droughts, megafires, and floods, indicating economies are exceeding planetary boundaries. This group posits that these crises are not disparate but rather symptoms of an outdated economic model. They contend that poverty and inequality are direct consequences of specific policy choices, including tax system design, labor market regulations, valuation of care, and the structuring of public services. The report emphasizes that governments possess the capacity to dismantle poverty through intentional policy shifts. Olivier De Schutter, chair of New Economies for Eradicating Poverty, and economists Jayati Ghosh, Kate Raworth, and Jason Hickel are also key contributors to this initiative, urging political leaders worldwide to adopt this alternative approach.