Deep Economy: Growth and Decline in America

[Thoughts from, about, and inspired by the book Deep Economy, by Bill McKibben. Stats cited are from that book.]

Since 1951, GDP per capita in America has tripled. That is, for every person in America, there is three times as much economic activity as there was 50 or so years ago. We own twice as many cars, on average, and new homes today are double the size they were in 1970. So why are we getting less happy?

Once a year for quite a while now the National Opinion Research Council has asked Americans whether, on the whole, the are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy. Since the early 1950s the percentage of people who counted themselves "very happy" has steadily dropped.

This is one of three findings that McKibben cites as proof that economic growth is not as beneficial as we've come to believe. The other two: one, although the economy has ballooned since WWII, many people's real income and wealth has dropped, and financial disparity has risen sharply, which is to say, the gap between the rich and the rest of grown; and two, earth's natural resources cannot sustain unlimited growth. In fact, if China's growth stays on the current pace, by 2031 (only 23 years from now) China alone will consume 99 million barrels of oil per day. To put that in perspective, that's 20 million more barrels per day than the entire world uses now. That's just one example.

I believe that one of the major theses of this book will be that happiness and satisfaction require only a minimum of financial resources, but are inextricably linked to community. And that by pursuing this "Economy of Community," as I've put it, many other problems can be abated. It's an exciting book - I highly recommend picking it up soon, and discussing it with me!