The Invention of Infinite Growth: How Economists Forgot About the Natural World

Let’s connect mainstream economics with reality

People in power tell us that growth is the surest path to a better life. This idea has shaped policy across the globe for the last seventy-five years, promising economic benefits that can continue without limit. Economists have clung to this premise while ignoring the collapse of natural ecosystems necessary to sustain human life.

We can feel the results in a warming climate, biodiversity losses, and skyrocketing inequality. It is obvious now that a thriving future requires an economic framework compatible with the natural world.

Tracing the long battle over how to analyze growth, Christopher F. Jones offers hope for the future. Humans have not always believed that economic growth should be infinite. We can still create new ideas about how to promote environmental sustainability, human welfare and a responsible economy, without compromising the planet and ourselves.