Review of Kate Raworth’s Doughnut economics: Seven ways to think like the 21st-century economist.
Good read. Is Kate Raworth being utopian?
I would say that Kate Raworth's work is similar to Mariana Mazzucato's in that they both propose out of the box solutions to addressing contemporary challenges. They are significant in that they are starting points for reflection, inquiry, conversation and debate.
Raworth challenges the growth model of conventional economics and Mazzucato challenges the negative attitude toward government and its ability to influence the economy positively.
No one book is likely to have the answer or all the answers. We need to talk about this intelligently as a body politic.
Milanovic makes some goods points.
Global Inequality
Kate Raworth’s economics of miracles
Branko Milanovic | Visiting Presidential Professor at City University of New York Graduate Center and senior scholar at the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS), and formerly lead economist in the World Bank's research department and senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
I have my doubts as to whether the discipline will ever attract the superior intellects....
ReplyDelete"change the ways economists think and the economics is framed in order to..."
ReplyDeleteYou cant 'change the way people think' thru a rote (ie 'framing') methodology, ie thru words... you have to use an active/kinaesthetic methodology... repetitive exercises over long periods of time ... to achieve permanent cognitive effects...
"if everybody in the world is to be “allowed” to have income level equal to the current median in the rich countries, world GDP would have to increase three times—not accounting for the rise in the world population. This is a fact for which Raworth has no answer and thus prefers not to mention it."
ReplyDeleteTom, Paradoxical thinking (aka Cognitive Dissonance) on the part of Raworth here?
Tom, Paradoxical thinking (aka Cognitive Dissonance) on the part of Raworth here?
ReplyDeleteIt long been known that given the resources of the planet and the size of the population, which continues to grow, although growth rate contracts with development, there are not enough resources to enable all to live at the same level as the developed countries have reached.
So either there has to be some technological breakthrough, or the developed countries have to reduce their current mode.
Both should go hand it hand. For example, cold fusion would change the energy equation, which is the most important one, and a shift away from the consumer economy characterized by induced demand, which would be a good thing because it is distracting the people in developed countries and shifting attention to the trivial instead of the important. Moever, the presents consumer lifestyle involves a huge amount of waste, which could also be greatly reduced.
I haven't read Raworth's book, but from Branko's short review it seems she is long on diagnostics and short on a treatment plan.
This affects the thinking on the left generally. In my experiences, those on the left are good at point out what's wrong but clueless about fixing it with a plan that will actually work.
I don't write this off to cd as much as plain old ignorance and lack of ability to think things through systematically.