Purposeful Economics ... and a Purposeful World

Humanity is waking up every day to a world with ever increasing challenges ... and for humanity and the environment to survive and thrive in the future we will need a new economics, a Purposeful Economics, putting wellbeing at its heart ...

For instance, Satish Kumar, born in India, a Jain monk at nine years old, who made an 8,000-mile (13,000km) peace pilgrimage at 26, and now lives in Devon (UK), has called for 'more unity, compassion and long-term thinking to address the crises humanity now faces', and said ...

"We need to come together quickly because the climate and nature situation is catastrophic. We need a united front, like the independence movement in India under Mahatma Gandhi, or the anti-segregation movement in the United States under Martin Luther King ...

The cause of climate change is the blind pursuit of economic growth. I want to challenge that. We need to shift from economic growth to the growth of human wellbeing and planetary wellbeing ...

I was an adviser to the Gross National Happiness centre in Bhutan. I think Bhutan is pioneering something very important. One of the smallest countries in the world is teaching us that economic growth should be in the service of human and natural wellbeing rather than humans in service of the economy. That idea is spreading. There have been wellbeing summits in Paris and Bilbao, but it is not enough. Mainstream governments have not woken up to this idea ...

The UK prime minister is still asleep and thinking economic growth can save country, but the saviour has to be wellbeing. We had economic growth for 40 or 50 years. But have the benefits reached the majority of people? Has it helped the environment? No ...

Social justice and environmental justice are two sides of the same coin. As an Indian non-white involved in the green movement and Schumacher College, I am a symbol of inclusivity and there are more women than before and people from other ethnic groups. But there is a long way to go. I don’t think we have done enough to bring social justice into the environment movement. We need to make it more inclusive and broad based ...

Most of problems of the world today – global warming, biodiversity loss, plastic waste, wars and pollution – are created by leaders from universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale. Why are highly educated people behaving so irrationally? It is because they are educated to think nature is only a resource, a means to and end, and that this end is economic growth. They treat people the same way – as a human resource to be used for economic growth. If we continue educating people this way, then no matter how many COPS the United Nations has, we won’t solve any problems. We need to change our worldview. We need to educate a new generation that nature is not just a resource for the economy, nature is life itself ...

We need education to remind us that humans and nature are not separate. At the moment we think of nature as something else – forests, mountains, birds and so on. But humans are nature ... education should teach us to see nature, not as an inanimate machine, but as a living organism. James Lovelock called this Gaia – a self maintaining, self-correcting organism ... the economy of nature is cyclical. But today we have a linear industrial economy – use it and throw it away. That is why we have oceans full of plastic, rivers full of sewage and an atmosphere full of greenhouse gases ...

The UK education system treats young people as if they have no body, no heart, no hands, only a brain. In fact only half a brain. Most teaching aims at the left side of the brain – science, technology, management, bureaucracy, extraction. Our education system hardly addresses the right side – creativity and intuition ... we inherited such a beautiful world. Our creative ancestors passed on art, religion and culture. But what are today’s realists leaving for future generations? Climate change, nature extinction, war in Ukraine, war in Gaza and other catastrophes ..."

I fully agree ... and to tackle growing levels of social breakdown (including terror/war), health challenges, financial challenges, and the ever-increasing environmental challenges we will need Purposeful Government, trusted Purpose Driven Government, applying Purposeful Economics, with human & planetary wellbeing at its heart ... the foundations are here, e.g. GNH, Doughnut Economics, Regenerative Economics, and these will need to join together and grow (in scope & application) if we are to create a thriving Purposeful Britain ... and a sustainable, flourishing, Purposeful World^†.

David Clift

Purposeful Ambassador®

Co-founder, Purposeful Education

Founder, Good Turns & Purposeful Enterprises

Co-developer of Purposeful Britain and a Purposeful World

^† Purposeful Government™, Purposeful Economics™, Purposeful Britain™, Purposeful Communities™, Purposeful Education™, Purposeful Council™, Purposeful Learning™, Purposeful School™, Purposeful Academy™, Purposeful College™, Purposeful University™, Purposeful Educator™, Purposeful Ambassador™, Purposeful Enterprise™, Purposeful Organizations™, Purposeful Board™, Purposeful Executive™, Purposeful Director™, Purposeful Governor™, Purposeful MP™, Purposeful Trustee™, Purposeful Partner™, Purposeful Investor™, Purposeful World™, Good Points™, Good Points System™, Good Turns™, Good Turns Foundation™ etc are all recognised/registered trademarks.

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