Bill Mckibben's Deep Economy

Bill McKibben seeks out a method to desert and reveal the current economic system of the world in the chapter “After Growth” of his book Deep Economy. McKibben declares that we have compromised our happiness and the health of the planet to fixate over economic growth. Mckibben's claim is that economic growth results in climate change, which leads to social problems and first-world unhappiness.

McKibben warns that exploitation can only lead to destruction, and in this case our linear economic system is creating climate change. McKibben believes that it all started with the invention of the steam engine, which used fossil fuel in the form of coal. To utilize the fuel, it must be burned to release highly concentrated energy for use. McKibben

acknowledges that finding out how to use energy from fossil fuels is a massive accomplishment of the human race, but also warns that it must be used in moderation. After World War II this country became obsessed with growth and improvement, and fossil fuels powered it all. McKibben explains that after struggling economically in previous years, America needed a way to reinvent itself. The strategy was to buy, and Americans did. All that buying meant that people were using fossil fuels and natural resources to do so. Unfortunately there is not an endless supply of fossil fuels and since then, resources have depleted dramatically. Ultimately, McKibben states that economic growth that is created through our system is irresponsible, because it ignores the environment completely. Gaseous fossil fuels are emitted into the atmosphere when the fossil fuels are used and they collect and throw off the balance of the greenhouse gases. McKibben explains that, “That’s all global warming is- the gaseous remains of oil fields and coal beds acting like an insulating blanket.” (McKibben, 20-21) Global warming has the ability to transform the climate, and McKibben says that we should be afraid of that. In fact, “We might as well have a contest to pick a new name for Earth, because it will be a different planet.” (McKibben, 21) McKibben contends that ignoring climate change will harm our planet and us, and will result in a world that will be product filled but barren of natural resources.
It is not hard to see what the root cause of our social problems are, McKibben says that our economic system is built around the system of inequality.

So from the beginning of the whole process: McKibben has made it clear that our economy is structured around purchasing, and the way to keep people purchasing is to advertise. Advertising tricks people into idealising a product, and makes them want to buy it because it will make them cooler, better or essentially just more happy. The reason we need to buy more is because we believe we will be better off with it, that it will make our lives more efficient. Ascending from that original trend to buy, it also pushed a new type of thinking: he wrote that that “efficiency [is] the ultimate tool for exploiting the earth’s resources in order to advance material wealth and human progress.” (McKibben, 5) In other words it was a campaign to be productive and make everything more efficient. Efficiency creates new things that are better than the old ones, this is how growth is made. McKibben knows that if people are told to buy into efficiency, they will, because everything is built around supporting people to buy new and effective things. If all products can be replaced with better versions of themselves, then the process will never stop! McKibben also has acknowledged that through constant progression, the top 5% most affluent people are the only ones who are gaining from everyone else's mislead need to buy into growth. It is easy

to see that the world has a fairly excessive wage gap, and that “though our economy has been growing, most of us have little to show for it.” (McKibben, 10) McKibben gives the idea that although people have far more stuff, they are not actually all that wealthy in comparison to the people who they are buying from. Because if people earn only a small amount from the their employers, then pay corporations back for inexpensive consumer goods, they are not actually keeping very much wealth at all. McKibben confesses that through this whole system the people who keep winning are not the working class. McKibben has discovered that the social problems in our world are the result of obsessional economic growth.
McKibben then goes on to ask an integral question of our modern existence: are we happy?

We look like we have it all, but do we really? McKibben provides that what we think makes us happy- is actually just the product of a capitalistic brainwashing charade to make everyone into happy consumers. People are told that when they buy they will be happy, that they will have value, because they have stuff. Consumerism taps into people's insecurities; the goal is to make people feel inadequate if they do not contribute to the system of buying. Feeling inadequate is definitely not going to make us happy, so what will? According to McKibben, “we need time with family, we need silence for reflection, we need connection with nature.” (McKibben, 44) McKibben says that we are still in the momentum of the past when we had plenty of non-materialistic things, but little material goods. McKibbens understanding is that we are now living lavish lives, but because we are under the impression that material things can be a source of value and happiness, we feel as though have not got enough. McKibben then moves on to analyse what we can do, which is find ways to change our economy from being linear to circular, so that there isn't an end, but a continuation. McKibben summarizes it as “we need, in short, a new utilitarianism. When more and better shared a branch, we could kill two birds with one stone. Since they’ve moved apart, we can’t.” (McKibben, 45) More and better definitely are long past

sharing the same goal, and it will be difficult to refocus our economic system on sustainability and fairness. McKibben proposes that, “we need an Einsteinian economics, a more complicated and relativistic science that asks deeper questions.” (McKibben, 45) McKibben believes that if we can achieve that, then we will regain our sense of purpose, and gain back happiness.
McKibben arrives at the opinion that focusing on getting a better economy has the opposite effect on our planet. As efficiency has become fashionable, people harm the environment that allows us to live, and consequentially we just aren't happy. McKibben’s realisation lead him to believe that there is hope for a change in the future that has to do with reinventing our economics.