Herman E. Daly - Economic Quotes

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It is imaginable that someday we will discover how to create materials from nothing, how to achieve perpetual motion, how to reverse time's arrow, and so on. But to take such science-fiction miracles as a basis for economic policy would be absurd.

Herman E. Daly
We have lived for 200 years in a growth economy. In this time we have come to believe that all our major economic ills – from unemployment and poverty to overpopulation and even environmental degradation – can be solved by more growth. And if the global economy existed in a void perhaps that would be true. But it does not.

Herman E. Daly
If economic reality is actually so complex that it can only be described by complicated mathematical models that add epicycles to epicycles and externalities to externalities, then the reality should be simplified.

Herman E. Daly
Current economic growth has uncoupled itself from the world and has become irrelevant. Worse, it has become a blind guide.

Herman E. Daly
Economic logic requires that we maximize the productivity of the limiting factor in the short run, and invest in increasing its supply in the long run. When the limiting factor changes, then behavior that used to be economic becomes uneconomic. Economic logic remains the same, but the pattern of scarcity in the world changes, with the result that behavior must change if it is to remain economic. Instead of maximizing returns to and investing in man-made capital (as was appropriate in an empty world), we must now maximize returns to and invest in natural capital (as is appropriate in a full world). This is not new economics, but new behavior consistent with old economics in a world with a new pattern of scarcity.

Herman E. Daly