"Growth is good. Like a sunny day. But having an economy that assumes all sunny days is a recipe for disaster."
This is one of the central insights from this week's podcast, featuring our very special guest, Tomas Sedlacek.
Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn has described Sedlacek, a celebrated Czech economist and the author of The Economics of Good and Evil, as one of the greatest influences on his thinking.
In this week's episode of the Strong Towns podcast, Marohn and Sedlacek dive deep into our economic system, which venerates the "cruel deity" of "the god of growth." Growth capitalism, as Sedlacek describes it, esteems growth above all else — even over values like democracy, stability and neighborliness. In such a system, the previously unthinkable either subtly or suddenly becomes credible.
We see the fruits of our economic system not just on our spreadsheets but in our built and social environments. In fact, says Sedlacek, our spreadsheets may be obstructing our view of the truth, which is that the economy, like almost everything in nature, goes in cycles. "I'm not against growth," he says. "I'm just against expecting that every year will be a growing year."
Economics, he says, is too human to be studied as a hard science, like chemistry or physics. We should approach it like we would psychology, sociology and philosophy. Appropriately then, Chuck's conversation with Sedlacek ranges from discussions about the 2008 financial crisis and modern monetary theory, to a story from the Hebrew Bible, the etymology of the word "credit" (from the Latin credere, meaning "belief"), and Aristotle’s take on interest rates. Sedlacek also talks about what a society could look like it if it didn't have, at its center, unrealistic expectations of ceaseless growth.
Grace Olmstead: The Legacy—and the Future—of the Places We Leave Behind
Cullum Clark: Creating Cities of Opportunity
Rep. Jake Auchincloss & Rep. Mike Gallagher: How Congress Can Support Local Leaders and Get the Economy Going (Video)
Joseph Kane: Prioritizing People (Not Projects) In Infrastructure Spending
Dig Deep: What Does Democracy Look Like Now?
Richard Florida: Remote Work and "The Rise of the Rest"
Bad Bets
Allison Schrager: "The only insurance against uncertainty is resilience."
Gabrielle Gurley: For Transit, "The Cuts are Coming"
Matthew Yglesias: The Case for One Billion Americans (Part 2)
Matthew Yglesias: The Case for One Billion Americans (Part 1)
John Pattison: From Slow Food to Slow Church
Chris Bernardo: Filling the Gaps to Support Local Businesses
Just Print the Money
Stacy Mitchell: Fighting for Small Businesses and Strong Local Economies
A Time for Local Action
Blake Pagenkopf: Rebooting Our Political Operating System
Denise Hearn: The Myth of Capitalism
Ben Hunt: We're Not Going to Fix This from the Top Down
Bonus Episode: The Bottom-Up Revolution
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