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Show Notes
Growth: A History and a Reckoning (Daniel Susskind)
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674303571?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/Growth%3A-A-History-and-a-Reckoning-Daniel-Susskind.html
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/comptia-a-audio-crash-course-complete-review-for-he/id1532994813?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1&at=1001l3bAw&ct=9natree
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Growth+A+History+and+a+Reckoning+Daniel+Susskind+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://mybook.top/read/0674303571/
#economicgrowth #GDPandwellbeing #climateeconomics #inequality #productivityandtechnology #Growth
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, How Growth Became the Default Definition of Progress, The book first explains that growth is not an eternal economic obsession but a historically specific answer to urgent problems. In periods marked by scarcity, insecurity, and mass poverty, expanding output offered a practical route to longer lives, better nutrition, safer housing, and broader opportunity. Susskind explores how growth moved from being one desirable aim among many to becoming the organizing principle of policy. Measures like national income accounting helped make growth legible and comparable, while political competition made growth an attractive promise that could unite diverse groups. When growth is strong, governments can fund public services, reduce conflict over redistribution, and sustain social bargains. When it weakens, politics becomes harsher because more groups compete over a smaller pie. This topic also highlights an important shift: the goals attached to growth expanded from material relief to a wider vision of modernity, capability, and national strength. Yet the same institutional fixation that once delivered remarkable gains can also narrow the imagination, encouraging leaders to treat growth as synonymous with success even when it comes at high social or environmental cost. Understanding this history sets up the books central question: if growth was a choice, it can be reconsidered.
Secondly, The Achievements of Growth and the Hidden Costs We Ignored, Susskind treats growth with intellectual honesty: it has been a powerful engine of human betterment, but it has never been a free lunch. This section emphasizes the concrete benefits associated with sustained expansion of productivity and output, including higher life expectancy, mass education, technological capability, and resilience against shocks. Growth also enabled welfare states and large scale public investment that would have been politically impossible in stagnant economies. At the same time, the book argues that the standard growth story often downplays costs that were displaced, delayed, or unevenly distributed. Environmental damage is a central example, where the full price of emissions and ecosystem loss was not reflected in market transactions. Another cost is inequality, as some growth models amplify returns to capital or concentrate rewards in superstar firms and high skill workers. There are also social costs such as stress, precariousness, and geographic divergence, when prosperity clusters in certain cities while other regions decline. By laying out both sides, the book invites readers to move beyond simplistic pro growth or anti growth slogans and toward a more practical question: under what conditions does growth improve lives, and when does it undermine the very foundations of prosperity?
Thirdly, Climate Limits and the Challenge of Decoupling, A major reckoning for growth is the climate and ecological crisis. Susskind examines why the old assumption of endless expansion collides with the physical reality of a finite planet. The key issue is whether economies can decouple: raising living standards while reducing environmental harm fast enough to meet climate goals. The book clarifies that partial decoupling has occurred in some places for some pollutants, but the scale and speed required for deep decarbonization are historically unprecedented. This frames a difficult policy dilemma. If growth continues in a carbon intensive form, it pushes societies toward worsening climate impacts. If growth slows sharply without preparation, governments may struggle to fund adaptation, social protection, and the innovation needed for cleaner systems. The discussion highlights the role of technology, regulation, pricing carbon, and public investment, but also stresses that technical solutions do not eliminate moral choices about consumption, fairness, and responsibility across countries. High income nations that benefited from past emissions face different obligations than developing nations that still seek basic prosperity. By treating climate as a binding constraint rather than a side issue, the book encourages readers to evaluate growth strategies in terms of environmental feasibility and intergenerational justice.
Fourthly, Technology, Productivity, and the Politics of Shared Prosperity, The book connects the future of growth to technological change, especially automation and digital innovation. Susskind explores why new technologies can raise productivity in principle, yet still fail to produce broadly felt improvements in living standards. One reason is distribution: even when an economy grows, the gains may accrue to owners of scarce assets such as advanced skills, intellectual property, data, or capital. Another reason is measurement and diffusion: some benefits are hard to capture in traditional statistics, while adoption can be slow outside leading firms and regions. The political consequences of these dynamics are central. If people experience technological progress as insecurity, weaker bargaining power, or declining community stability, support for markets and open societies can erode. Susskind therefore treats growth not just as a macroeconomic target but as a design problem: how to shape institutions so productivity gains translate into better lives for many. This topic emphasizes policy levers like competition policy, education and retraining, labor market protections, and the structure of taxation and transfers. The underlying message is that technology does not dictate social outcomes. Whether innovation delivers inclusive prosperity depends on choices about rules, power, and the distribution of opportunity.
Lastly, Rethinking What We Aim For Beyond GDP, After diagnosing why growth became dominant and why it is now contested, the book turns to alternatives and complements. Susskind argues that societies need a richer dashboard than GDP alone, because output totals can rise while wellbeing stagnates or ecological risks intensify. This topic explores what it means to take values seriously in economic policymaking. Instead of asking only how to maximize growth, the question becomes how to balance multiple objectives: health, security, meaning, equality, environmental sustainability, and freedom. The book also addresses the practical difficulty of operating without a single headline target. Growth is simple to communicate and compare, which is part of its political power. A broader framework must therefore be both morally compelling and administratively usable. Potential approaches include wellbeing metrics, adjusted national accounts that price environmental damage, and policies that prioritize foundational services like housing, childcare, and public health. The discussion also recognizes tradeoffs: some strategies that improve wellbeing may slow measured growth, while some growth enhancing reforms may worsen inequality or emissions. The value of this topic is that it reframes prosperity as a collective choice. It equips readers to evaluate policies not only by how much they expand the economy, but by what kind of society they build.
- Amazon USA Store: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674303571?tag=9natree-20
- Amazon Worldwide Store: https://global.buys.trade/Growth%3A-A-History-and-a-Reckoning-Daniel-Susskind.html
- Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/audiobook/comptia-a-audio-crash-course-complete-review-for-he/id1532994813?itsct=books_box_link&itscg=30200&ls=1&at=1001l3bAw&ct=9natree
- eBay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=Growth+A+History+and+a+Reckoning+Daniel+Susskind+&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5339060787&customid=9natree&toolid=10001&mkevt=1
- Read more: https://mybook.top/read/0674303571/
#economicgrowth #GDPandwellbeing #climateeconomics #inequality #productivityandtechnology #Growth
These are takeaways from this book.
Firstly, How Growth Became the Default Definition of Progress, The book first explains that growth is not an eternal economic obsession but a historically specific answer to urgent problems. In periods marked by scarcity, insecurity, and mass poverty, expanding output offered a practical route to longer lives, better nutrition, safer housing, and broader opportunity. Susskind explores how growth moved from being one desirable aim among many to becoming the organizing principle of policy. Measures like national income accounting helped make growth legible and comparable, while political competition made growth an attractive promise that could unite diverse groups. When growth is strong, governments can fund public services, reduce conflict over redistribution, and sustain social bargains. When it weakens, politics becomes harsher because more groups compete over a smaller pie. This topic also highlights an important shift: the goals attached to growth expanded from material relief to a wider vision of modernity, capability, and national strength. Yet the same institutional fixation that once delivered remarkable gains can also narrow the imagination, encouraging leaders to treat growth as synonymous with success even when it comes at high social or environmental cost. Understanding this history sets up the books central question: if growth was a choice, it can be reconsidered.
Secondly, The Achievements of Growth and the Hidden Costs We Ignored, Susskind treats growth with intellectual honesty: it has been a powerful engine of human betterment, but it has never been a free lunch. This section emphasizes the concrete benefits associated with sustained expansion of productivity and output, including higher life expectancy, mass education, technological capability, and resilience against shocks. Growth also enabled welfare states and large scale public investment that would have been politically impossible in stagnant economies. At the same time, the book argues that the standard growth story often downplays costs that were displaced, delayed, or unevenly distributed. Environmental damage is a central example, where the full price of emissions and ecosystem loss was not reflected in market transactions. Another cost is inequality, as some growth models amplify returns to capital or concentrate rewards in superstar firms and high skill workers. There are also social costs such as stress, precariousness, and geographic divergence, when prosperity clusters in certain cities while other regions decline. By laying out both sides, the book invites readers to move beyond simplistic pro growth or anti growth slogans and toward a more practical question: under what conditions does growth improve lives, and when does it undermine the very foundations of prosperity?
Thirdly, Climate Limits and the Challenge of Decoupling, A major reckoning for growth is the climate and ecological crisis. Susskind examines why the old assumption of endless expansion collides with the physical reality of a finite planet. The key issue is whether economies can decouple: raising living standards while reducing environmental harm fast enough to meet climate goals. The book clarifies that partial decoupling has occurred in some places for some pollutants, but the scale and speed required for deep decarbonization are historically unprecedented. This frames a difficult policy dilemma. If growth continues in a carbon intensive form, it pushes societies toward worsening climate impacts. If growth slows sharply without preparation, governments may struggle to fund adaptation, social protection, and the innovation needed for cleaner systems. The discussion highlights the role of technology, regulation, pricing carbon, and public investment, but also stresses that technical solutions do not eliminate moral choices about consumption, fairness, and responsibility across countries. High income nations that benefited from past emissions face different obligations than developing nations that still seek basic prosperity. By treating climate as a binding constraint rather than a side issue, the book encourages readers to evaluate growth strategies in terms of environmental feasibility and intergenerational justice.
Fourthly, Technology, Productivity, and the Politics of Shared Prosperity, The book connects the future of growth to technological change, especially automation and digital innovation. Susskind explores why new technologies can raise productivity in principle, yet still fail to produce broadly felt improvements in living standards. One reason is distribution: even when an economy grows, the gains may accrue to owners of scarce assets such as advanced skills, intellectual property, data, or capital. Another reason is measurement and diffusion: some benefits are hard to capture in traditional statistics, while adoption can be slow outside leading firms and regions. The political consequences of these dynamics are central. If people experience technological progress as insecurity, weaker bargaining power, or declining community stability, support for markets and open societies can erode. Susskind therefore treats growth not just as a macroeconomic target but as a design problem: how to shape institutions so productivity gains translate into better lives for many. This topic emphasizes policy levers like competition policy, education and retraining, labor market protections, and the structure of taxation and transfers. The underlying message is that technology does not dictate social outcomes. Whether innovation delivers inclusive prosperity depends on choices about rules, power, and the distribution of opportunity.
Lastly, Rethinking What We Aim For Beyond GDP, After diagnosing why growth became dominant and why it is now contested, the book turns to alternatives and complements. Susskind argues that societies need a richer dashboard than GDP alone, because output totals can rise while wellbeing stagnates or ecological risks intensify. This topic explores what it means to take values seriously in economic policymaking. Instead of asking only how to maximize growth, the question becomes how to balance multiple objectives: health, security, meaning, equality, environmental sustainability, and freedom. The book also addresses the practical difficulty of operating without a single headline target. Growth is simple to communicate and compare, which is part of its political power. A broader framework must therefore be both morally compelling and administratively usable. Potential approaches include wellbeing metrics, adjusted national accounts that price environmental damage, and policies that prioritize foundational services like housing, childcare, and public health. The discussion also recognizes tradeoffs: some strategies that improve wellbeing may slow measured growth, while some growth enhancing reforms may worsen inequality or emissions. The value of this topic is that it reframes prosperity as a collective choice. It equips readers to evaluate policies not only by how much they expand the economy, but by what kind of society they build.
