I love that this book offered imagery and metaphor as a way of understanding the economic world. Or at least did so purposefully. (If I’ve read other books that did the same, I forgot them… lol) The closest I can come is fantasy and science fiction where the world is like a character that undergirds the whole novel, where maps guide your footsteps.
In this nonfiction work, the goal of the Author was to offer up some metaphors for economic thinking that can shed light on how we act in our personal and public finance spheres. And the top chart in the book is the Donut, which replaces a chart of GDP growth.
Adam Smith is seen as the father of modern capitalism, and he focused on growth. Today growth is seen as THE single measure of health in the economy. On some level that is a valid metric. It certain is the one important metric for profit, and is an important data point to have. However as any “being” ages, continued growth might be a pathology and not a sign of health. Discernment, and a way of discerning, could help diagnose.
Below is a typical GDP chart, which I downloaded from the USA White House’s website. Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, GDP is growing substantially. (I am not looking at Iran War economics, so the dates cut off earlier.)
How should we diagnose our economic conditions? Kate Raworth offers a markedly different viewpoint from classic economic theory in her book published in 2017. She offers a the humble donut — and rather than a line tracing endlessly upward, or down if things are going poorly (as they did in 2020 according to GDP stats) — a circle of actions and consequences the today’s baker, I mean economist, might find useful.
The basic idea of the Donut is this: you want to live in the yummy cake portion. In the ring. If you overshoot and go outside the donut, you see environmental and resource degradation. If you undershoot, you see human suffering and poverty. Here is the main chart:
I found this book to be a wonderful read. I like to listen to nonfiction books on Audible, so that is what I did for this one. Kate Raworth narrated her book herself, and did a terrific job. There was a pdf of images which was very useful since this is a quite visual book. So I think I might recommend the paper or the ebook on this one, even though her reading was spot on.
How is this book about UPLIFT? It is a way of seeing that offers ideas for how to move forward into a positive future. This is something many people hope, that we can meet the challenges of our time. And I am one of the Hopers!
~Lizzy
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