Rob Dietz - Enough is enough: Building a sustainable economy in a world of finite resources

More Praise for Enough Is Enough

If you think there must be a better way forward than more of the same, then Enough Is Enough is the book for you. It tackles our affluenza, our growth fetish, and our wildly unfair social order head-on and points the way to a better place. I highly recommend it.

James Gustave Speth, former Dean, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies; cofounder, Natural Resources Defense Council; and author of America the Possible

Walking in the steps of E. F. Schumacher, Ivan Illich, Thich Nhat Hanh, and of course the great religions, perhaps best represented by the Taoists and Buddhists for their ethics of simplicity and not grasping always for more, Rob Dietz and Dan ONeill bring the modern dilemma of growth and the dogma of more is better into the contemporary reality. Enough Is Enough offers important new thinking on how to address the planets most urgent crises and establish an economy that achieves true biological sustainability and shared wealth for all.

Doug Tompkins, founder, The North Face; cofounder, Esprit; and President, Conservation Land Trust

In Enough Is Enough, Dietz and ONeill have accomplished something special. They offer a hopeful and practical plan for righting the economic and environmental ship, and they do it in a very engaging way. I hope my colleagues in Parliament are paying close attention to the ideas in this bookI know I am.

Caroline Lucas, Member of the UK Parliament and former leader of the Green Party of England and Wales

Enough Is Enough is the most accessible and well-argued case for a sustainable economy Ive ever read. With stories, examples, and plenty of data, but without the tedium of academic writing, Dietz and ONeill dismantle the most persistent of all economic mythsthat economies must grow without limit to provide full employment and improve the conditions of the poor. They explain how a different economic model can meet our needs without irreversible damage to the life-support systems of our planet. I cant recommend a book more highly.

John de Graaf, coauthor of Affluenza and Whats the Economy for, Anyway?

Rob Dietz and Dan ONeill have written the most readable description of the fundamental problems with the growth at all costs economic paradigm and how focusing on enough material consumption can make room for all the other things that contribute to human well-being. If youve had enough of the crazy economics of growth for the 1 percent at the expense of well-being for the 99 percent and the planet, then this is the book for you.

Robert Costanza, Professor of Sustainability, Portland State University, and Editor-in-Chief, Solutions magazine

What scope is there for moving beyond todays increasingly desperate pursuit of conventional economic growth? For politicians to carve out some real space in that territory, they need to immerse themselves in the beyond growth debate, and there is no better way of doing that than familiarizing themselves with the ideas and insights in Enough Is Enough.

Jonathon Porritt, founder and Director, Forum for the Future, and author of Capitalism as If the World Matters

This is the book weve all been waiting for as we watch the growth economy collide catastrophically with the constraints of a finite Earth. Its a clear, informed, practical, honorable, and witty guide to where we are, where we need to go, and how to get there. If you are one of so many of us who are bewildered or despairing about the fate of the future, this is the book that will give you an energized sense of purpose and reason-based hope.

Kathleen Dean Moore, Professor of Philosophy, Oregon State University; author of The Pine Island Paradox; and coeditor of Moral Ground

Two qualities that allegedly distinguish humans from other species are high intelligence and the capacity for forward planning. At no time in history has there been a greater need for these qualities or less evidence of their existencethe global human enterprise is on a trajectory toward social and ecological collapse. But clear-thinking, forward-looking people can take heart. Enough Is Enough provides both the unassailable rationale and the visionary plan the world needs to live well, more equitably, and sustainably within the means of nature.

William Rees, Professor of Public Policy and Ecological Economics, University of British Columbia, and cocreator of the ecological footprint

Enough Is Enough should be required reading for every economics student as an antidote to the wacky assumption that a finite planet can support infinite growth. Dietz and ONeill show the importance of growing long-neglected human capacities for creativity and compassion rather than obsolete economic indicators like GDP. Whether or not you agree with all their proposals, this highly readable and provocative book will profoundly expand your thinking about whats possible.

Michael Shuman, author of Local Dollars, Local Sense and The Small-Mart Revolution

Saying Enough! is heresy in our growth-based economy, in which more, bigger, and faster are the only permissible goals. The authors not only offer specific policy proposals for an economy of sufficiency but argue persuasively that we could all be happier by exiting the growth treadmill. This is a book that every American should read.

Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute, and author of ten books, including The End of Growth

In an age where economic orthodoxy remains all too fixated on growth, Enough Is Enough offers a thoughtful contribution to creating an ecologically sound economic system that meets human rather than financial needs.

Gar Alperovitz, Professor of Political Economy, University of Maryland, and author of America Beyond Capitalism

Enough Is Enough is a fine addition to the growing literature on how society might change its ways and actually avoid catastrophic collapse. Everyone should read it and become more aware of the scale of the human predicament, the economic insanity that is largely responsible for it, and the desperate need for dramatic change.

Paul Ehrlich, Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University; President, Center for Conservation Biology; and coauthor of The Dominant Animal

In the sixth century BCE, Lao Tzu wisely wrote that the person who knows that enough is enough will always have enough. It has taken us twenty-six centuries of apparent progress to forget that, and it is high time to relearn it. Rob Dietz and Dan ONeill provide a compelling case for us to do just that. As well as an accessible guide to the growth-and-greed economy, they offer a series of simple and achievable steps to replacing it with something sustainable and infinitely more satisfying.

Molly Scott Cato, Professor of Strategy and Sustainability, Roehampton University, and author of Environment and Economy

The notion that economic growth is the enemy and not our salvation still has about it more than a whiff of heresy. Not after this admirably lucid book, though. Dietz and ONeill argue persuasively that adopting a governing axiom of enough rather than more will help make our politics more democratic, our economy more egalitarian, and our society more creativeand then they show how to bring it about. How bad is that?

Marq de Villiers, journalist and author of thirteen books, including Our Way Out

Enough Is Enough is an extremely important and timely work. Herman Daly and his many colleagues have masterfully articulated the importance of creating a new economy that can enhance rather than destroy our natural resources and, at the same time, improve our quality of life. Now, in