The Economy Has to Exist Within the Planet

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We think planet earth has a set of life supporting s on which we depend to keep this unique, delicately balanced living planet in balance. And if we go beyond the limit of pressure that we can safely put on any of these, we actually risk tipping this planet out of balance. We are way over those danger zones already, on climate, on excessove fertilize use, on converting too much land, on bardiversity loss. So iv sit ind staring at this picture, and i picked up my pen and i drew a circle inside their circle, and said, the hole in the middle of that circle is a place you don't want to be.

When Kate Raworth began studying economics, she was disappointed that the mainstream version of the discipline didn’t fully address many of the world issues that she wanted to tackle, such as human rights and environmental destruction. She left the field, but was inspired to jump back in after the financial crisis of 2008, when she saw an opportunity to introduce fresh perspectives. She sat down and drew a chart in the shape of a doughnut, which provided a way to think about our economic system while accounting for the impact to the world around us, as well as for humans’ baseline needs. Kate’s framing can teach us a lot about how to transform the economic model of the technology industry, helping us move from a system that values addicted, narcissistic, polarized humans to one that values healthy, loving and collaborative relationships. Her book, “Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st Century Economist,” gives us a guide for transitioning from a 20th-century paradigm to an evolved 21st-century one that will address our existential-scale problems.