Growth Fetish by Clive Hamilton (PDF)

Description

Right on target, and badly needed’ – Noam Chomsky’Every now and then a book that is perfect in timing and tone hits my desk. Growth Fetish is that book. It is powerful and potentially transformative.’ – Rev. Tim Costello’This book reveals the undelivered reality of economic growth and the hollow mantras of the Third Way. Growth Fetish provides a much needed road map to a new politics in a post-growth world.’ – Senator Natasha Stott DespojaFor decades our political leaders and opinion makers have touted higher incomes as the way to a better future. Economic growth means better lives for us all. But after many years of sustained economic growth and increased personal incomes we must confront an awful fact: we aren’t any happier. This is the great contradiction of modern politics.In this provocative new book, Clive Hamilton argues that, far from being the answer to our problems, growth fetishism and the marketing society lie at the heart of our social ills. They have corrupted our social priorities and political structures, and have created a profound sense of alienation among young and old. Growth Fetish is the first serious attempt at a politics of change for rich countries dominated by the sicknesses of affluence, where the real yearning is not for more money but for authentic identity, and where the future lies in a new relationship with the natural environment.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Wonderful! It’s great to know I am not alone in my view of the error in direction of current western economics. As a layman and non acidemic, I found it very easy to read and understand. If only more people would!

⭐In recent years, there have been a number of voices criticizing economic growth, including such writers as Tim Jackson, Juliet Schor, Peter Victor and Richard Heinman. None of those authors cite to this book — which seems a bit unjust, since the author (CH) anticipated them by 5 years or more, at least in the universe of English-language publications. And whereas most of those other writers foreground the looming environmental disasters of global warming and/or “peak oil,” CH puts more human issues up front, such as how society’s strong emphasis on consumption distorts our way of looking at the world. In this he is more like some European critics of growth, such as the late André Gorz, whom he was again out front in reading and quoting.Some parts of the book have aged better than others. CH’s praise for the liberating power of non-regular employment (Chap. 6) was already off-base as to the situation in some countries, such as Japan, at the time he wrote; it’s certainly too rosy a picture for many other Western economies post-2008 crash. (It’s amazing how many tenured university professors who’ve never been unemployed love to recommend to others that losing a career isn’t so awful: judging by the CV on his website, CH seems to have held various prestigious positions, sometimes several at a time, continuously since getting his Ph.D. in 1984.) On the other hand, while the chapter on politics focuses on the Third Way of Blair’s Britain, its observations remain remarkably pertinent to the policies of the Obama era. The existence of such a chapter is also refreshing, since more recent books in this genre are much more focused on economics and the environment. Apropos of which, CH’s chapter has a nice typology of philosophical attitudes toward the environment (@191ff) that remains useful, even though global warming has become even more serious than it was in 2003.Unfortunately, the final chapter about the “post-growth society” probably never was very pertinent: it’s heavy on grand utopian wishful thinking, such as that a post-growth society will “engender and reflect a historic transformation of consciousness” (@214), provide “an opportunity … to trigger a cultural renaissance” (@226-227), and will “encourage a reinvigoration of democracy” (@217). Among other issues here, it is far more likely that a revived and strengthened democracy will be a pre-requisite for attaining any “post-growth society” than a result.Nonetheless, if you take this last chapter with a grain of salt, there’s plenty you can learn from this book if you’re new to the idea that economic growth might not always be a good thing. If you’ve already read a few books on de-growth, this one won’t tell you many things that will seem new — but I give it a healthy star-rating because it deserves credit for having said them before many others did.

⭐Powerful arguments concerning the links (or lack thereof) between happiness, economic growth, advertising and marketing. One of the most powerful arguments highlighting the shortfalls of consumer capitalism. The more difficult challenge is to present a realistic alternative under the constraints of human nature.

⭐Clive Hamilton in Growth Fetish is fermenting a philosophy of a new life. The model of democratic capitalism focusing on economic growth has created a society that thrives on gaining an identity from what they purchase, big house, fancy car, etc, rather than from what they produce. The Third Way advocated looks at the failure of the capitalist market model and is suggestive of what goods and services are more public provision. It is good reading for society to look at what has gone wrong with the fetish mentality based solely on “money” and identity derived from “possessions”, perhaps the base of the greed mentality. Reading this book will also make people more environmentally friendly. Once you start reading the book, you can’t put it down, it takes hold of you.

⭐If you are wondering where infinite GDP growth is taking us then you should read this book.If you are wondering what infinite consumption is doing to us as a race then you should read this book.If you are wondering why the choice has gone out of politics as every party tries to seize the middle ground then you should read this book.If you are wondering why GDP seems to grow but your life doesn’t get better then you should read this book.If you’ve ever wondered why we need thousands of hair care products which differ only in how they are marketed, you should read this book.Basically, you should read this book. Someone ran off with my copy, but I’ll buy another. It really is that good. You’ll find yourself picking it up again and again, and like Shakespeare you’ll take something different away from it every time.

⭐Trained in economics and politics, Dr Clive Hamilton is Executive Director of The Australia Institute, an independent Australian public interest think tank. For the first time his book clearly analyses the current world-wide fetish for mistakenly equating economic growth with improvement in wellbeing and outlines his illuminating view of the “post-growth society”. For instance, he states:- “The transition to a post-growth society will be just as far-reaching as the transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism or from industrial capitalism to consumer capitalism. It will fundamentally transform power relationships, social institutions, our relationships with others, our ethical rules, our attitudes to the natural environment and, ultimately, our consciousness.”This book demonstrates integrative thinking of a high order and is a welcome change from the plethora of writing that is full of critical thinking about world affairs but does little to suggest a way forward for the growing number of people who feel there is more to life than increased consumption.I believe it is a “must read” for thinkers in all fields everywhere.

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⭐Clive Hamilton does a great job of sketching a framework for an alternative to neoliberalism and its ‘growth fetish’. A must read for social democrats everywhere.

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