The Four Horsemen of the Future

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Since I've been alive on this planet, the United States and the global economy have increased our debt more than we've increased our GDP every single year. This is not sustainable. We are between 350 and 400% debt to GDP as a global culture. And that just to put it in individual terms is as if you made $100,000 a year. And you owe the banks 350,000. By the way, you're spending more than 100,000 and you're potentially going to get laid off or not have a raise. This is the situation with respect to resources that our global economic system is in. The issue is whether this bends or breaks."

In Part 3 of this Frankly Series, Nate (just after watching the movie Oppenheimer!) breaks down the logic of how we COULD arrive at a post-growth future. Our global situation is complex and not static - IF we somehow are able to shrink the global economic output (which would imply significantly less oil use) we first have to navigate ‘the 4 Horsemen of the 2020s’. Nate outlines 10 possible avenues for how this could happen, not as a prescription but as a description of various possible scenarios. The implications of the complexity of our global systems means a path to a world without our current dependence on growth will not be an easy one. Yet understanding these hurdles between our current situation and an eventual post-growth future is essential to shifting the initial conditions of such a global transformation towards ‘better-than-the-default’ outcomes. How do impending and converging risks narrow our options for ways to move towards a different global system - and can we manage to protect the things that make life worth living?

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/EhOhfRrvYI0

For Show Notes and More: For Show Notes and more: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/frankly-original/40-just-stop-oil-part-3-10-pathways-to-post-growth