For the Long-Haul: Sustainable Prosperity

This chapter continues Part II of Social Economics’ examination of the goals of economic systems, suggesting a path beyond gross domestic product (GDP). Sustainable prosperity recognizes capacity limitations of the ecological and social worlds in which economic activity takes place. Society places limits on economic activity with norms and customs, family and social life, and the like. The environment has limited natural resources to offer as inputs into the production process and limited ability to absorb waste from that production. Rather than focusing on ever-expanding production, sustainable prosperity pays attention to long-run economic, ecological, and social health, not for altruistic reasons but because a healthy society and a healthy environment are valuable themselves and are crucial to a healthy economy. Unending growth is not sustainable. Sooner or later the ability of the environment to provide resources and absorb waste from economic activity, its carrying capacity, will be overwhelmed—and that support structure will be lost. Economic implications of monoculture and large-scale production are discussed, as are diversity, climate change, social capital and trust, social media, and “deaths of despair”—deaths by suicide, drug overdose, and liver failure.