Economics as if people and planet matter

Evolving and exploring sustainable economics systems. Locally. Thinking in terms of our specific USPs (Unique Selling Points). A fully personalised, local sustainable economic system that considers us (humanity), the planet, resources and a thriving environment for all involved, whatever variety of Earth Resident you are. HOT’s Zelly Restorick, a member of a local action group, reports.

A few weeks ago, as part of the Radical Book Group at Lee Humphries’ Printed Matter Bookshop, a group of local citizens discussed the book Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth. From this seed, the Hastings Doughnut Economics Action Group has formed, exploring economic systems and what might be done in our home town to change and challenge our current long established, inherited, but now out-of-date, system.

Kate Raworth writes about where the current economic system is tragically and chaotically failing the majority of us and thoroughly abusing and disregarding our home planet – and suggests an alternative sustainable model, where everybody thrives, resources are shared fairly and equally – and we seriously consider and significantly change both our relationship with this planet we call home and our belief in the system of constant growth and accumulated wealth, which is simply no longer fit for purpose.

If the idea of local alternative and complementary sustainable economics systems interests you, then please contact the group and get involved – and/or go along to the collaborative event organised by the Hastings Doughnut Economics Action Group and the Hastings Quaker Economics Group taking place during Sustainability on Sea Festival Week.

The Hastings Doughnut Economics Action Group

This name may well change – things are changing as the group evolves – as we explore economics and educate ourselves. Some of the team have studied economics to academic level, others – like me – are just starting out. Kate Raworth suggests that if we haven’t as yet been indoctrinated by learning economics formally, she is having the first lick at our tabula rasa – our blank economic slate. However, it doesn’t really matter where you are on the economics learning scale, you can always learn something new. If you so choose.

Paul Samuelson, ‘the man who drew economics’, writes Kate Raworth, wrote the 1948 text book: Economics, embracing diagrams, graphs and charts, ‘creating a one-stop shop economics course of the masses’. The infamous Circular Flow diagram is one of his. The book became a worldwide best-seller, an educational aid to teaching the subject.

Paul Samuelson said: “I don’t care who writes a nations’ laws – or crafts its advanced treatises – so long as I can write the economics textbooks… The first lick is the privileged one, impinging on the beginner’s tabula rasa at its most impressionable state.”

As with all education, the worth and value for the student depends entirely on: Who are the teachers? What are they teaching us? What is the curriculum makers’ agenda? What is their intention – for the student? For themselves? What is The Bigger Picture?

Microcosm <=>Macrocosm.

Best is to learn about economics yourself, self-directed education, as bookshop owner Lee Humphries set out to do after the financial crash – equipping himself with knowledge and seeking his own economic wisdom. Taking a look at the bookshelves devoted to ‘Economics’ in his shop, I learned instantly how many other systems exist or are possible: fairer, more sustainable, cleaner, greener, more equitable with global resources and more inclusive than the one to which we have become accustomed.

Hastings and St Leonards on Sea economic events and gatherings:

‘Economics As If People Mattered’
6pm Wednesday 26 September
Friends Meeting House, South Terrace TN34 1SA
“Mainstream economics didn’t predict or prevent the financial crash of 2008, and it is doing nothing to stop runaway climate change. We need new kinds of economic thinking and economic policies that can give us good jobs and more equality while also protecting the planet from pollution and greenhouse gases.” For more info, contact hastings.doughnut.economics@gmail.com and find out more about Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, with some amazing podcasts, videos and animations making the topic of economics very accessible.

Poetry fundraiser

Raising funds for a Doughnut Economics conference/series of events in Hastings and St Leonards on Sea: Tuesday 25 September 2018. Cafe Grand Rue de Peras on Queen’s Road. Readers will include: Lucan Howard, Dillon Jaxx, Antony Mair, Anna Rouse and Andrea Samuelson – with music from Zarir Sethna.

Group meeting: 

Next meeting is this Friday, 21 September 2018 at Printed Matter Bookshop on Queen’s Road.

Sussex Coast College

Possible/potential connection with Energise Sussex Coast’s day long event at Sussex Coast College on Friday 19 October.

Buying the book

The book Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth is available from Printed Matter Bookshop on Queen’s Road in Hastings.

Connected HOT article: Sustainability on Sea 22 – 30 September 2018.

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