Abstract
The book Enough is Enough by Rob Dietz and Dan O’Neill is an outstanding reference highlighting the “sustainability” concept. The book starts with prevailing facts in the preface and goes on to surprise the reader in the remainder of the book. Readers are always brought back to simple yet sophisticated questions, and often find themselves thinking about what is really meant by “enough,” “more,” or “less.” The book consists of questions of enough, strategies of enough, and advancing the economy of enough. The book is likely to interest not only environmental economists and those concerned with sustainability, but also every citizen aware of recent developments in world history. Regardless of where we live, we all share the risks and rewards of the world’s production and consumption issues. The famous statement of Lao Tzu (Sixth Century B.C.E) is relevant to our current questions: “A person who knows that enough is enough will always have enough.” Is this an easy thing? When will we really understand we have enough? The search for the answer should start with the question “Have I had enough?” Therefore, the book also starts in accordance with this approach, and asks firstly whether we have “enough.”
The authors discuss the failures of an economy that forever pursues more. They explore the environmental and social downsides of continuous economic growth, and particularly emphasize the limited natural resources and diminishing returns for improving people’s lives. Politicians often emphasize that economic growth reduces wealth inequality. However, this view is naive. Although the global economy has increased twenty-five fold during the last century, still more than 1 billion people are struggling to survive on less than $1 per day and, astonishingly, 2.7 billion people have less than $2 per day for their living expenses (United Nations 2006). According to the World Bank, economic growth is an essential ingredient for sustained poverty reduction. However, this view is controversial because poor people benefit less from economic growth than do the rich. Individuals should be aware of how much of this is enough. The main issue to consider with regard to “how much is enough” is the lack of limits. Here, lack of limits refers is undefined. When limits are undefined, persuading individuals that “they have enough” is difficult.
Regarding the question of what sort of economy is enough, one proposed solution is the “steady-state economy.” The steady state economy takes into account material and energy use within ecological limits, and its main goal is to improve quality of life rather than increasing GDP. Although the idea seems promising, achieving it may take too long in a world where 2.7 billion people live on less than $2 per day. And how many countries in the world are eager to transform their economies to a “steady state”? Nevertheless, the underpinnings of the steady-state economy can be discerned: sustainable scale, fair distribution, and efficient allocation. Over the last few centuries, these have been the main tenets of political and even religious ideologies that have created the composition of the new economy. However, the authors doubt whether they can be really achieved because the requirements for the transition are abstract and difficult to achieve. Requirements include: the adoption of new meanings and measures of progress, limits on material and energy consumption, waste production and conversion of natural lands, a stable population and labor force, a more efficient capital stock, more durable and repairable products, better pricing including for carbon emissions, a shorter work year and more leisure time, reduced inequality, fewer status goods, more informative and less deceptive advertising, better screening of technology, more local and less global trade of goods and services, and education for life, not just for work. However, further thinking and finding agreement on specific measures of these changes will be required. Currently, such changes are merely theoretical. How, for example, does one distinguish education for life from education for work? Moreover, who benefits from more local (and less global) trade in goods and services? The authors also question the realism of their emphasis on rethinking investment, productivity, ownership, and environmental values as the main pillars for steady-state economy. The discussion of these underpinnings is not statistically supported; rather they are stated as “to do” issues.
On the other hand, “degrowth” is a potential alternative to having “enough.” Degrowth needs a steady state economy structure. After asking questions of enough, readers may be skeptical whether the book has raised all the questions and discussed all the strategies of enough. Enough throughputs (resource use), enough people (population), enough inequality (income distribution), enough debt (monetary and financial systems), enough miscalculation (how the progress is measured), enough unemployment (problems in employment), and enough business as usual are evaluated from the “enough” perspective. Regarding enough throughputs, the book introduces a number of prevailing facts to understand the risk to being “sustainable” in the near future. For example, estimates of the global economy’s “ecological footprint” suggest that humanity is consuming resources and creating waste at a rate 50 percent faster than what is actually sustainable.
In addition to a “strategies of enough” section, the end of each chapter lists initiatives regarding “What could we do instead?” These usefully summarize and clarify the issues discussed throughout the chapter. However, they are still very abstract and no empirical evidence is provided to say whether they could actually be achieved. For instance, the direct methods recommended to limit throughput are utopian. How many people would agree to rationing where “… each person could be allocated a certain number of kilowatt-hours of electricity per month” (p. 64). How can such a recommendation be realized? What would be the criteria for deciding on the “allocation?” Convincing people that they have sufficient throughput of resource use will be very challenging.
There are other concerns. The authors note how limiting throughput to sustainable levels requires fundamental alterations that increase short-term costs. Global businesses, with their bias toward reducing cost levels, are likely to oppose change. Moreover, the evidence for a strong majority calling for “enough” is based on a survey conducted in the state of Oregon where respondents agreed with the statement that people “would be better off if we all consumed less.” This finding alone should not be generalized to mean that a clear majority of the world is calling for enough. What about the people in other U.S. states and in other countries? It is likely that they will be happier if they consume more, particularly the 2.7 billion people considered to be living in really poor conditions.
Arguably, the world already has “enough people.” However, stabilizing world population depends upon global population politics, such as balancing immigration and emigration in low and high-income nations. In terms of distribution of wealth, data showing income gaps and inequality are stressed. The main challenge to “enough inequality” is the preponderance of messages from advertising, news stories, television, movies, and Internet sources encouraging more not less consumption. The power of social media may rectify this situation since numerous cases prove the “viral” power of social media to initiate protests and rebellion. The Occupy movement has become an icon for worldwide protest. Beginning in 2011 as a protest on Wall Street against inequality, it was followed by protests in Spain and, in 2013, in Turkey. Given the number of people involved in the protests throughout the world, we can see the role of social media in promoting the pillars of “enough” and engaging more people in this transition.
Although the recommendations for a steady state economy and issues of “enough” attract attention and build up enthusiasm for this transition, the book’s claim that people agree “there can be no prosperity without a shared prosperity” is suspect. Regarding “enough debt,” misconceptions abound including “money is wealth,” “governments are the primary money creators,” and “the problems with current financial system can be solved with figures and statistics.” However, the same does not apply to the issue of what we could do instead. As discussed previously, the reader is left with many questions, one of which might be: That is exactly right, but the solutions provided are far beyond what is possible.
For instance, the book recommends making illegal the creation of money as debt and the use of local currency to solve monetary problems. It proposes an international currency, which could be issued by an independent organization to resolve trade imbalances between nations, but such would be extremely difficult to achieve. If the world needs a neutral international currency not controlled by any single country or group of countries, how will it be governed? Furthermore, the authors claim that when the proposed changes are completed, the economies of different nations will become more equal. However, numeric goals for these claims are missing. In the “enough miscalculation” section, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is said not to be an effective indicator of economic growth because it does not measure life satisfaction of citizens. When GDP increases, growth can be uneconomic since its costs are greater than its benefits. This has also been examined by the United Nations. Five types of uneconomic growth have been identified: jobless growth, ruthless growth, voiceless growth, rootless growth, and futureless growth. GDP does not measure uneconomic growth.
To take into account the well-being of citizens, the Happy Planet Index (HPI) is proposed as an alternative indicator. The HPI determines how effectively limited resources are transformed into long and happy lives. Happiness does not solely result from economic growth. According to the recent HPI, the top five happiest nations are Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Vietnam. These countries still have a long transition period before becoming developed economies. The use of the HPI can be generalized if the correlations among the natural environment, human well-being, and economic systems are measured and found to be significant.
The book discusses the many flaws in economic systems that lead to “enough unemployment.” In a country with high unemployment, the authors argue, the challenge is to match the kinds of jobs supplied by the economy with the kinds of jobs that society really needs. Work time reduction is recommended as a “to do” for unemployment, but this is based on survey data not clearly explained. The authors give Dutch labor force participation rates as a reference to validate the potential positive impacts of work time reduction on unemployment. However, the labor force participation rate worldwide is not as it is high as in the Netherlands. For instance, in Turkey the labor force participation rate is approximately 50% in total, where approximately 75% of male and 25% of female population are employed (Karacadag Development Agency 2012; Turkish Statistical Institute 2011). Although these rates are low, employers still tend to extend rather than reduce working hours. For many countries, thinking that we need fewer consumer goods and more time is a fantasy. Convincing the 19 million people in Turkey who are between 20-34 years to move away from materialism towards spiritual development will be extremely difficult.
When the book gets to “enough business as usual,” the very long introduction is difficult to follow. More recent statistics should be provided in the discussion of GDP of nations and revenues of corporations. In addition, this section gives vague recommendations for promoting new business models to generate shared value (such as promoting functionally clean clothes, rather than selling washing machines), to create business structures less prone to growth, and to adopt new measures of success for business.
The last part of the book, on “Advancing the Economy of Enough,” explores strategies for moving past the culture of consumerism, for starting a public dialogue on steady state economy, and for expanding cooperation among nations. However, the concept of “enough materialism” is not questioned from the perspectives of people who seek and are eager to work harder for more. Throughout the book, the numbers of such people and their desires are neglected. The book says we have had “enough silence,” but with the recent protests such as Occupy Wall Street and similar demonstrations around the world, people are not as silent as it assumes. Moreover, it should not be forgotten that the call for “enough voices” will be confronted with messages from the opposite side. Another issue is “enough unilateralism.” Limiting growth and focusing more on local production capacity are suggested as ways to develop steady-state economies. This seems to be overly optimistic when the differences in local production costs among countries are considered. In contrast, international organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization are criticized as being unilateral and undemocratic. This criticism is unjustified when one considers the many contributions of these organizations to developing countries.
In the last part of the book, the title “enough waiting” is chosen to summarize the discussions and recommendations. Policies for transitioning to steady state economies are supported with statistics. Confusion over recommendations, such ownership issues, still exists in this section. It recommends “A steady-state economy would contain a variety of ownership arrangements, especially ones founded on democratic principles” (p. 196). The reader is left with the question “how?” The authors are also aware of the how question, and argue that the deployment of the policies presented in the book necessitates society-wide discussions of economic goals. Additionally, the authors advance their ideas with descriptions of the institutions and policies needed for the steady state economy.
All things considered, this well-written book provides a clear vision. Although in need of more empirical support, the flow of the argument is simple, but comprehensively discussed, and covers a wider range of topics. Macromarketers with an interest in sustainability will find many topics in the book of interest. This book deserves to be read by academicians and practitioners who are sensitive to the future and the “sustainability” of the world.