Riches or ruination? Has mainstream economics reached its use by date?

Abstract

Unless we decide very soon to make far-reaching changes in the way we plan for the future, the destructive forces of modern economics promise to cause enormous damage to our ecosystems, our social systems and even our economies themselves. The changes that are needed will require substantially different ethics to be used as the basis for the development of policy at all levels of society. The ethics needed – and the axioms that arise from them that will be the core of the new economics – will be informed by the best of modern complex systems engineering, together with the physical, ecological and social sciences.

Keywords:

• economics
• sustainability
• growth
• science
• ethics

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Sustainable Economy Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 12 November 2010 and the NZ Society for Sustainability Engineering and Science Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, 30 November–3 December 2010.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John Peet

Present address. 87 Soleares Avenue, Christchurch 8081, New Zealand.