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Toward a Just and Sustainable Economic Order
Author(s) -
Cobb John B.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1995.tb01349.x
Subject(s) - order (exchange) , interdependence , work (physics) , commission , sustainable development , production (economics) , welfare , economics , injustice , product (mathematics) , economic system , business , economic policy , political science , market economy , engineering , macroeconomics , mechanical engineering , geometry , mathematics , finance , law
The present global system aims at economic integration for the sake of maximizing “growth” as measured by the gross national product (GNP). This leads to sustained efforts to destroy all national barriers to trade and to make all people interdependent. The results are widespread injustice and unsustainable pressures on the environment. The Brundtland Commission's proposal of “sustainable development,” which involves expanding the entire economy five‐ to tenfold, will not work. Increasing the GNP does not correspond well with improving economic welfare, much less with social well‐being. Realizing this noncorrespondence may make it possible to develop an economic order that is geared to meeting the needs of people rather than increasing production. Such an economy would be decentralized and organized from the bottom up.