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

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

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