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The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Can we really grow the economy forever? – with Daniel Susskind

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Every party promises a growing economy as a solution for everything – but can economic expansion carry on forever? On a planet with finite resources, can growth really be infinite? Ros Taylor talks to Daniel Susskind, economic professor and author of Growth: A History and a Reckoning, about the mystery of economic growth, what “degrowthers” want, and how to balance the pros and cons of an ever-expanding economy.  • “Economic growth feels like it’s a permanent fixture, and yet for most of history there was no growth at all. Modern economic growth only really began about 200-250 years ago.” – Daniel Susskind  • “One of the great mysteries in economics is that we actually know surprisingly little about the process of economic growth.” – Daniel Susskind  • “One thing degrowthers get wrong is this idea that we cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet. I think we CAN have effectively infinite growth.” – Daniel Susskind  Buy Growth: A History and a Reckoning through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit. www.patreon.com/bunkercast       Written and presented by Ros Taylor. Producer: Eliza Davis Beard. Audio editor: Robin Leeburn. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Music by Kenny Dickinson and artwork by James Parrett. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.  Instagram | Twitter   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved

0:05.5

photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.

0:11.8

Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?

0:13.0

I loved going to college.

0:14.0

It's good you can retrain and do something.

0:16.0

Yeah, yeah.

0:17.0

Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.

0:22.0

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0:28.0

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0:30.0

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0:32.0

From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa.

0:37.0

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0:55.5

after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker your need to know on news and politics five days a week. I'm Ros Taylor.

1:13.6

We all want economic growth, right? It's the thing that will bring in money for

1:18.3

public spending and pull Britain out of this downturn. Jeremy Hunt says only his policies can ensure it.

1:24.8

Rachel Reeves believes she can kick-start it.

1:27.8

But not everyone agrees with that. Some green campaigners say we should resign ourselves to de-growth for the sake of the planet,

1:35.1

and assuming we do want growth, we don't agree on how to get it.

1:39.1

So it's a great time to be talking to Daniel Susskind, Professor of Economics at Kings College London,

1:45.2

and he's just written a book about growth. Daniel, welcome to the bunker.

1:49.3

Pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.

1:51.4

When did the economy start growing?

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