Two birds with one stone

Imagine a venn diagram in which the circle on the left represents policies to increase economic growth and the circle on the right represents ecological conservation strategies. For many people these two categories are mutually exclusive – either you grow the economy or protect the environment, but you cannot accomplish both tasks simultaneously. This belief has framed the environmental protection debate in the United States and resulted in the overwhelming consensus that government should be more involved in preserving business and jobs than in preserving the environment. However, in order to maintain long-term economic growth it is necessary to focus not on the left-hand circle alone, but in the policies that lie at the center of the venn diagram, where economic growth sustains a health environment. More specifically, it will be necessary to differentiate economic growth policies from those at the center of the diagram aim to develop the economy without growing it, that is to say the policies that enhance quality of life without producing more stuff. Indeed, the true goal of economic growth is not to have an eternally-increasing gross domestic product (GDP) but an increasing quality of life. To accomplish this object the United States needs to seriously question the ideologies that have brought us to 2011, a year in which the economy and the environment are on very unstable grounds. 

 Some thoughts...

• Too many resources are spent on defense and the military industrial complex and not enough on nation-building at home.
• We've lost community connections. In my opinion, rewarding human connectivity, that feeling of mutuality and shared space, is integral to true happiness.
• The general population has lost interest in politics, or perhaps has been overcome with a feeling of hopelessness. Either way, we need to become educated first, and then active in policy-making.