223
“The OECD estimates that the top 1% of Canada’s income earners have captured
37% of total income growth over the past three decades (Banting and Myles 2016,
p. 1). After almost 30 years, Canadians woke up to this kind of inequality following
the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 that protested against the huge incomes
of the top 1%.
6.3 Disappointments with Economic Growth
Since the 1980s, economic growth has been a disappointment. “Despite a 109.5%
growth in real GDP, Canada’s rate of unemployment barely fell from 7.5% in 1979
to 6.3% in 2006 (Victor 2008, p. 157).
Growth in real GDP did not reduce poverty significantly as measured by the
Human Poverty Index (Victor 2008, p. 160). The income gap of an average Canadian
family living below the Low Income Cut Off (LICO) poverty line was greater than
it had been 25 years previously even though the real economy had grown by 100%
(Victor 2008, p. 160).
Economic growth has been accompanied by a major increase in the inequality of
income. “The share of total pre-tax income (excluding capital gains) received by the
top one percent of income earners increased from about 7.5 per cent in the late
1970s to 13.5% in 2000 while the share of the rest of the 10 per cent hardly changed.
Meanwhile, the share of total income going to families with middle incomes
(defined as between 75 per cent and 150 percent of median after-tax income) fell
from 52.1 percent in 1989 to 47.3 percent in 2004 (Victor 2008, p. 163).”
Last, but not least, economic growth has increased green house gas emissions
thereby increasing the prospect of a “terror of an unliveable future” for our grandchildren (Klein 2014, p. 28). In addition, economic growth has been generating
material and energy flows that are increasing beyond the capacity of the environment to accommodate them (Victor 2008, p. 191). More specifically, economic
growth involves an increase in “throughput” which is the flow of natural resources
from the environment through the economy and back to the environment as waste
(Montini and Volpe 2017, p. 173). Therefore, slower economic growth is needed to
reduce green house gas emissions and eliminate excessive throughput to preserve
the environmental system for future generations.
7 Conclusions About Peter Victor’s Managing
Without Growth
In his 2008 book, Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster, environmental studies professor Peter Victor presents a set of policies based on a sociological, political science and economics analysis (i.e., political economy) for
The Political Economy of Managing Without Growth
“The OECD estimates that the top 1% of Canada’s income earners have captured
37% of total income growth over the past three decades (Banting and Myles 2016,
p. 1). After almost 30 years, Canadians woke up to this kind of inequality following
the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 that protested against the huge incomes
of the top 1%.
6.3 Disappointments with Economic Growth
Since the 1980s, economic growth has been a disappointment. “Despite a 109.5%
growth in real GDP, Canada’s rate of unemployment barely fell from 7.5% in 1979
to 6.3% in 2006 (Victor 2008, p. 157).
Growth in real GDP did not reduce poverty significantly as measured by the
Human Poverty Index (Victor 2008, p. 160). The income gap of an average Canadian
family living below the Low Income Cut Off (LICO) poverty line was greater than
it had been 25 years previously even though the real economy had grown by 100%
(Victor 2008, p. 160).
Economic growth has been accompanied by a major increase in the inequality of
income. “The share of total pre-tax income (excluding capital gains) received by the
top one percent of income earners increased from about 7.5 per cent in the late
1970s to 13.5% in 2000 while the share of the rest of the 10 per cent hardly changed.
Meanwhile, the share of total income going to families with middle incomes
(defined as between 75 per cent and 150 percent of median after-tax income) fell
from 52.1 percent in 1989 to 47.3 percent in 2004 (Victor 2008, p. 163).”
Last, but not least, economic growth has increased green house gas emissions
thereby increasing the prospect of a “terror of an unliveable future” for our grandchildren (Klein 2014, p. 28). In addition, economic growth has been generating
material and energy flows that are increasing beyond the capacity of the environment to accommodate them (Victor 2008, p. 191). More specifically, economic
growth involves an increase in “throughput” which is the flow of natural resources
from the environment through the economy and back to the environment as waste
(Montini and Volpe 2017, p. 173). Therefore, slower economic growth is needed to
reduce green house gas emissions and eliminate excessive throughput to preserve
the environmental system for future generations.
7 Conclusions About Peter Victor’s Managing
Without Growth
In his 2008 book, Managing Without Growth: Slower by Design, Not Disaster, environmental studies professor Peter Victor presents a set of policies based on a sociological, political science and economics analysis (i.e., political economy) for
The Political Economy of Managing Without Growth