On 22 April 2016, World Earth Day, environmental philosopher Dr Auke Pols gave a public lecture on ‘Prosperity without Growth’ in Baambrugge for the Cursusproject Abcoude – Baambrugge. The lecture dealt with the topic of economic growth policy and its relation to sustainable development and was inspired by Tim Jackson’s report on Prosperity without Growth. First, Auke examined the relation between economic growth and well-being. The basic (ethical) idea behind this is that the more we buy and consume, the more we (apparently) satisfy our preferences. Assuming that satisfying our preferences makes us happy, the more the economy grows, the happier we become. Yet this assumption can be criticised in a number of ways. For example, for many people ‘leading a good life’ entails much more than simple preference satisfaction and often entails consuming less (e.g. dieting or giving up smoking). Also, sociological research has shown that, once people are rich enough to satisfy their basic needs, happiness is influenced much more by other factors (e.g. social security, health) than by simple GDP growth. In addition, our current policy focus on growth has led to ecological problems (e.g. climate change, biodiversity loss), social problems (e.g. rising inequality) and economical problems (e.g. our current economy is designed so that it will either grow or fall into recession, but cannot stabilise.)

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