“Austerity” was recently called the word of the decade in the Wall Street Journal. From the perspective of business the primary deficits to be tamed are those in public spending, but the truth is that our economy and consumer culture are as over-extended as our public purse. In fact, we face multiple deficits simultaneously.

In The Sustainability Revolution, systems-learning pioneer Peter Senge explains that stabilizing “CO2 in the atmosphere at levels that minimize catastrophic consequences will require 60 percent to 80 percent reduction in emissions in the next two decades.” Michael Pollan, who writes about the culture and the environmental costs of food, has observed that our eating habits enfold us in three interrelated crises: the energy crisis, since food production and transportation account for consumption of 20 percent of the world’s yearly oil output; the health crisis, because processed and fast foods contribute to the obesity and type-2 diabetes epidemics that are bankrupting healthcare systems; and the environmental crisis, as deforestation proceeds to accommodate cattle grazing, and fisheries are vacuumed to the point of species extinction. Fiscal austerity is prudent, but to only focus restraint on spending misses the larger, structural deficits that will become even more destabilizing and dangerous in the not too distant future.

We have usually adopted austerity as a corrective – a short-term measure to reduce debts and restore balance. Just as weight-loss diets rarely work for human beings, instant cuts in spending – no matter (more…)

Tags: austerity, austerity ethics, humanistic austerity, multiple deficits, utilitarian austerity
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