The economy is kept going by maintaining growth in its development.
This growth requires billions of consumers to consume more and productive enterprises to produce more. Together they use an increasing share of the Earth’s resources.
But the Earth’s resources are bounded.
Humanity consumes natural resources at a rate far higher than Nature can regenerate. As a consequence, supplies are depleted and the natural processes on which life depends are disturbed.
An economy cannot sustain mankind by progressively destroying the conditions that sustain life.
Maintaining economic growth is not a necessity. It is a long-standing practice.
There is another way to keep the economy going: make it progress while using resources at a rate in equilibrium with Nature’s capacity to regenerate.
To achieve this, consumers must benefit financially from choosing goods and services that make the most efficient use of resources.
Give consumers one third of the ecological value¹ of every purchase as a reduction in the price they pay.
The higher the ecological value, the greater the reduction.
Consumers therefore benefit from choosing products with the highest ecological value.
Producers, in turn, benefit from increasing the ecological value of their products to attract consumers and remain competitive.
The higher the ecological value, the more efficiently resources are used.
Competition will therefore drive producers towards ever greater efficiency.
As billions of consumers pursue their own interest, their combined demand will direct production towards goods and services that remain within Nature’s capacity to regenerate.
We do not have to keep the economy going by maintaining growth.
We can keep it going by preserving the conditions that keep us alive.
This is the Ethical Market Economy.
¹ Ecological value is the percentage of the production costs of a product spent on renewable resources.