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| John Maynard Keynes - he imagined a steadily rising income would see us working 15-hours a week. |
Something like that, but even more adventurous, was
predicted in 1930 by iconic economist, John Maynard Keynes.
Keynes then believed that, within a century,
per-capita income steadily rise, people’s basic needs would be met and no one
would have to work more than fifteen hours a week.
Clearly Keynes was wrong: as he predicted
per-capita income has steadily risen, easily accommodating basic needs in the
developed world, but he misunderstood human psyche in that our wants vastly
exceed what we actually need resulting in a society in a society that sates
that addiction by working longer and longer hours.
Subsequently we have become financially rich, time
destitute and striding seemingly unawares toward the abyss of a rapidly
changing climate being brought upon us by the heedless consumption of energy
using finite carbon dioxide producing fossil fuels, and the equally wasteful
accumulation that depend on that same finite resource.
Both dynamics are driven by the fact that we are
simply too rich and so should we be serious about climate change adaptation we
will all happily work fewer hours, earn less money and so consume less and so
use far less energy.
Queensland urban design expert, Juris Greste, once
said we don’t live in an economy we live in a society.
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