Imagine you’re a mother living in rural Sub-Saharan Africa. Your child wakes up crying - again. His belly is bloated, but he’s starving. The nearest clinic is 12 miles away, and there’s no clean water for miles…

But you’re not alone. Right now, 1 in 9 people on Earth doesn’t have enough to eat. In the time it takes for you to read these words, hundreds of children will die. Not from some rare disease, but from things we can already treat: diarrhoea, malaria, dirty water.

Many millions of people still lead lives of extreme deprivation, with 1 person in 9 not having enough to eat.

2 billion people live on less than $3 a day and over 70 million young women and men are unable to find work to save their lives. But… while so many people openly struggle, the richest 1% own more wealth than the other 99% combined (2015 data).

And it gets worse…

Global temperatures are rising. Storms are stronger. Droughts longer. Floods more violent. Over 80% of the world’s fisheries are already exploited or collapsing. And on top of all that, every minute we dump a truckload of plastic into the sea. If nothing changes, by 2050 there’ll be more plastic than fish. That’s not a metaphor - that’s math.

All of this is not some scene from a dystopian sci-fi movie that you can turn off and forget about. This is reality.

So... what went wrong with our economy and what can we do to fix it?

1️⃣ Change the Goal

For 70 years, the world’s economies have been obsessed with GDP.

If that number goes up, we’re doing well. If it goes down, we're in an economic recession.

But no matter how high the GDP is, it doesn’t care if people are starving or if nature is getting destroyed. It doesn’t care if billionaires are hoarding while billions go without.

This fixation on GDP has helped justify massive inequality and environmental destruction.

We must change the goal...

Instead of chasing GDP growth and just stacking up the monetary value of everything bought and sold through the market or state, economics should focus on something far more meaningful: meeting the needs of all people, within the means of our living planet.

The goal should be to get everyone into the safe and just space of the Doughnut, where human wellbeing and planetary health can thrive side by side. We can and should build economies that distribute value more fairly by redistributing the wealth embedded in land, business, technology, knowledge, and even the power to create money.

Economies that make us thrive, whether or not they grow > Economies that need to grow, whether or not they make us thrive.

So how do we shift?

Amartya Sen proposed that we can start by stopping obsessing over GDP and starting to expand people’s capabilities - their real freedoms to live healthy, empowered, and creative lives. For that to happen, however, everyone must have access to life’s basics: nutritious food, clean water, good healthcare, quality education, safety, a political voice, etc.

So, the 21st-century economist’s task is to bring everyone into that safe and just space - the Doughnut - where no one falls short on life’s essentials, including things like food, water, sanitation, energy, education, healthcare, decent housing, a minimum income, decent work, and access to information and community support. And these must all be achieved with gender equality, social equity, political voice, peace, and justice. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals aim to achieve this by 2030.

🌎 5 Factors Play a Key Role in Whether We Can Move Into This Safe and Just Space:

1. Population

   The most effective way to stabilise population size is to end deprivation and ensure everyone can live a life of dignity and opportunity.
   

2. Distribution

   Extreme inequality puts pressure on both social and planetary boundaries. A fairer distribution of resources is a must if we’re going to live within the Doughnut.
   

3. Aspiration

   What we aspire to is deeply shaped by how and where we live. Cities can fuel consumerism, but they also offer a chance to meet people’s needs—housing, transport, water, sanitation, food, energy—more efficiently and fairly.
   

4. Technology

   The technologies we choose for urban life matter hugely. We could replace endless traffic with fast, accessible public transit; swap fossil fuels for solar power; design buildings that heat and cool themselves sustainably, etc.
   

5. Governance

   We need global and local governance that reduces humanity’s strain on the planet and does so fairly, with attention to the different impacts and responsibilities of each region and country.
   
   

2️⃣ See The Big Economic Picture

Close your eyes for a moment and picture a neat little diagram from your high school economics class:
A tidy circle with arrows that show households giving labour, businesses giving wages... Money flowing and resources moving.

It's clean, simple... but completely wrong.

The real economy is not a closed loop - it’s a messy, living system. It breathes in air and water. It eats soil and sun. It relies on the Earth — and it's slowly suffocating the very body that feeds it.

If we want to save ourselves, we have to zoom out. Waaaay out.. To truly understand the economy, we need to see it in its full context 👇:

EARTH - which is life-giving, so respect its boundaries.
Every bite we eat, every breath we take, and every drop we drink comes from Earth.
But we treat it like it’s infinite - we act as if we can pump oil, cut trees, dump waste, and never run out.
Earth has limits and when we cross them, we don't just threaten polar bears. We threaten ourselves.

SOCIETY - which is foundational, so nurture its connection.
A thriving society is not possible without trust and connection, and a strong political engagement (democracy). A thriving society starts with community meetings, grassroots organising, voting in elections, and joining social and political movements that hold political representatives to account. Without these things, it will fall apart from the inside out.

THE ECONOMY - which is diverse, so support all of its systems.
The economy isn’t just one thing. It’s a diverse system made up of markets, households, commons, governments, and more. Each plays a different role, and all of them matter.

THE HOUSEHOLD - which is core, so value its contribution.
Economics praises paid work but forgets the unpaid work that holds everything together. Caring for children, elders, neighbours or cooking, cleaning, teaching, and healing are the foundation of society that runs the world. It's not counted in GDP, but when we ignore this, we punish people who do it, mostly women, which causes lifelong inequalities in social standing, job opportunities, income, and power.

THE MARKET - which is powerful - so embed it wisely.
Markets can be incredibly effective, but they need to be kept in check. Left unchecked, they serve profit over people, and plunder what should be protected. Markets must be embedded in values — guided by boundaries and purpose, not just profit.

THE COMMONS - which are creative - so unleash their potential.
Wikipedia. Open-source software. Community gardens. They aren't run for profit - they're run for us.
In the age of the internet, humans can collaborate like never before — sharing knowledge, solving problems, building networks, and creating without always relying on the market.

THE STATE - which is essential - so make it accountable.
The state plays a vital role in setting the rules, redistributing resources, and protecting the public good. They build roads. Fund hospitals. Educate children. But the state must be accountable and rooted in real participation, not backroom deals.

FINANCE, which is in service - so make it serve society.
Money creation is power, but in most places, it's controlled by private banks and financial firms. Inflating bubbles. Crashing economies. Destabilising nations. This has to change. Finance should serve the people.

BUSINESS - which is innovative, so give it purpose.
Business can solve problems as well as cause them. That's why businesses need a purpose far more inspiring than merely maximising shareholder value. If it aims to serve society, it can innovate with empathy and scale solutions the world desperately needs.

TRADE - which is double-edged, so make it fair.
There’s no such thing as “free” trade. Behind every deal are histories, politics, and power. Similarly to businesses, trade can lift nations as well as crush them! It needs effective cooperation among governments to ensure that the benefits of cross-border trade flows work for all, not just the powerful few.

POWER - which is pervasive - so check its abuse.
Power shapes who gets heard, who benefits, who gets left behind. When businesses fund political campaigns, they often expect something in return (i.e favourable policies). To build an economy that’s fair, we need to distribute power, not just money. That means giving citizens more voice, more ownership, and more control.

3️⃣ Nurture Human Nature

Imagine being told the same story your entire life - that deep down, you are selfish, that you care more about winning than connecting, that you’ll always choose power over people, and that your only role in the economy is to compete, consume, and climb.

That’s the story of a Rational Economic Man — the cold, calculating figure who dominates economics textbooks and policies around the world. He’s perfectly rational, obsessively self-interested, and totally isolated. He is, according to classical economics, you.

As such, we've been building a world that rewards greed, punishes kindness, and treats the natural world as a pile of resources to extract. A word that's perfect for the Rational Economic Man.

Except... he’s not real.

We, humans, are caring, reciprocating, compassionate, and part of the web of life. Who we tell ourselves is who shapes who we are and how we act. And so, if we want to build economies that work for people and planet, we need to start with a fuller, more honest view of human nature

🌍 Our Values

Psychologist Shalom Schwartz and his team surveyed people from over 80 countries and identified 10 clusters of basic personal values that are recognised across cultures:

• Self-direction – valuing freedom, creativity, and independent thought

• Stimulation – seeking novelty, excitement, and a rich life

• Conformity – respecting social norms and avoiding disruption

• Security – desiring safety, stability, and harmony

• Power – aiming for status, control, or dominance

• Achievement – striving for success and personal competence

• Hedonism – pursuing pleasure and enjoyment

• Tradition – honouring cultural or religious customs

• Benevolence – caring for close others and promoting their well-being

• Universalism – caring about justice, nature, and the broader human family

These values show us that we’re not just wired to be self-serving and competitive, but we’re wired to connect, care, and contribute.

And if we design economies based on narrow, cynical assumptions based on Rational Economic Man, we’ll keep creating systems that reward selfishness and short-term thinking. But if we start with a richer, more accurate view of what really drives us, we can build systems that bring out the best in us.

4️⃣ Get Savvy with Systems

The economy is not a machine, where you can just pull the right levers and push the right buttons to keep it running smoothly, like clockwork. The idea that economies are predictable, linear, equilibrium-based that control outcomes is outdated.

Real economies don’t work that way. They’re messy, dynamic, unpredictable, complex systems made up of people, communities, and nature, all constantly interacting and evolving.

🔄 Thinking Like a System

We need a new mindset in the 21st century. We should stop betting everything on one grand idea and instead think of policy as an adapting portfolio of experiments, where we run small-scale experiments, check what actually works, and adapt along the way.

Why? Because real economies are like forests. Like coral reefs. Like families and cities — ever-evolving, full of feedback loops, surprises, breakdowns and bursts of life. They learn, crash, and adapt.

Our job is not to control them, but to listen, observe, and evolve with them.

There are a few key ingredients that help any system thrive:

Healthy Hierarchy - A well-functioning system has parts that serve the whole:

• The financial system should serve the real economy

• The real economy should serve human well-being and the living world

Self-organisation - Good systems can evolve and reorganise themselves. (e.g. a cell dividing itself, a forest regenerating):

• Our communities organise around shared goals

• Marketplaces adapt through supply and demand

• People create value in homes, networks, and commons

Resilience - Emerges out of a system’s ability to endure and bounce back from stress.

📜 Ethical Principles for the 21st-Century Economists To Consider:

1. Act in the service of human and planetary well-being. Always remember the web of life we depend on.

2. Respect autonomy by engaging the communities we work with and being mindful of the inequalities within them.

3. Be prudent in policymaking. Prioritise the safety and dignity of the most vulnerable, especially when the future is uncertain.

4. Work with humility. No model is perfect. Be honest about assumptions and limits. Listen to diverse voices and keep learning.

5️⃣ Design to Distribute

Imagine you helped build a house. You laid the bricks, painted the walls, fixed the roof. But when it was finished… you were unexpectedly locked out. That’s what our economy does...

Millions of people co-create value every day—but only a few at the top hold the keys. We need to shift from economies that concentrate power and wealth in the hands of a few to ones that share opportunity and value with everyone who helps co-create it.

This includes rethinking how ownership, technology, finance, commons, and governance are structured to spread value more equitably, so that everyone can thrive.

⚖️ Why Does It Matter?

If we want humanity to thrive within the Doughnut, where no one falls short on life’s essentials and we stay within the planet’s ecological limits, then everyone must have access to the resources and opportunities that let them live with dignity, opportunity, and community.

Research shows that inequality within countries is what shapes our social well-being. Countries that have more prominent national inequality have:

• Higher rates of mental illness, obesity, addiction, and teenage pregnancy

• More people in prison, higher school dropout rates, and community breakdowns

• Lower life expectancy, lower trust in others, and lower status for women

• Increased ecological degradation, slower and more fragile economic growth

On the other hand, more equal societies, whether they are rich or poor, were found to be generally healthier and happier.

We can’t wait for economic growth to reduce inequality because it will never happen. Instead, we have to design economies that are distributive from the very beginning - that spread value, opportunity, and power more fairly.

🤝 What a Distributive Economy Looks Like

🌱 We share time, not just money - people aren’t burned out while others hoard leisure.

🗳️ We share decision-making power - communities get a voice, not just CEOs and lobbyists.

🏘️ We share ownership of land. Of housing. Of money. Of the tools of tomorrow—like AI, data, robots, and the tech that runs our lives.

💸 We invest in people, not just profits - local shops, small farms, community co-ops—not just big corporations with offshore accounts.

🧠 We value human, social, and cultural capital - because well-being isn’t just about bank accounts. It’s about relationships. Safety. Dignity. A sense of meaning.

6️⃣ Create to Regenerate

Imagine that you've stayed in someone else's home - not just visiting, but living there. You’ve used their water, their heat, eaten their food, left your dishes in the sink, and walked mud through the hallway... and leaving without cleaning up. That’s pretty much what our current economic system does to the Earth. We’ve been behaving like ungrateful guests! Maybe trying to do less damage - yes, but still taking, exhausting, and polluting. But this is not enough.

Instead of just trying to do less harm, we need to aim higher—to heal, restore, and give back. That means designing economies and systems that don’t just avoid pushing us beyond our planet’s limits, but actively help us restore and work within the cycles of the living world, bringing us back within Planetary Boundaries.

Not as a side project or some corporate greenwashing. We must create a system that is regenerative by design.

🌿 Why Does it Matter?

Researchers noticed something fascinating across dozens of countries: when people are more equal, their environment is cleaner. The air is better. The water is safer. And not because of some top-down policy miracle, but because people care more when they feel seen, respected, and empowered. Crazy idea, eh?

In unequal societies, people often feel powerless. Disconnected. Struggling just to get by. Why would they fight for a river when they’re drowning in bills? But in fairer societies, where people have a voice, dignity, and agency, they also start to protect the world they live in. In short, empowered people protect the planet.

🌀 What Can Businesses Do?

Businesses need to be generous, creating an enterprise that is regenerative by design and giving back to the living systems they are a part of. Being regenerative isn't just a checkbox or a marketing angle—it’s a mindset. The 21st Century businesses now have a shared responsibility to leave the living world better than we found it.

Some companies are starting to wake up. They’re aiming for zero-waste manufacturing, designing products to be refurbished and reused, or selling services instead of stuff.

Sam Muirhead, one of the instigators of the Open Source Circular Economy, believes that circular manufacturing must become open source because the principles behind open-source design are the strongest fit for the circular economy’s needs. These principles include:

• Modularity - Designing products so parts are easy to take apart, fix, and reassemble (like lego!)

• Open source - Providing full information on how something is made and what it’s made of

• Open data - Tracking where materials are and how they can be reused

So, the 21st-century economist’s role is to design economic policies and institutional innovations for enterprise and finance, for the commons and the state, to unleash the potential of the circular economy and regenerative design. That might mean:

• Creating policies that reward repair, reuse, and restoration

• Supporting community-owned enterprises and resource-sharing platforms

• Rethinking finance so it serves the planet, not just profit

• Investing in commons-based innovations and nature-positive industries

7️⃣ Be Agnostic About Growth

What if the whole world’s economy, everything from your job to global power structures, were built like a casino that only works if we keep spending more, consuming more, growing more?

We're not far off from this image, it seems.

Mainstream economics has worshipped one god for decades: GDP growth, whether or not it makes us thrive. The world is all about more sales, more output, more stuff. And if the numbers don’t climb - panic, cutbacks, recession, collapse.

But what if the real goal was to create economies that help us thrive, whether or not they grow?
What if what actually matters is connection, well-being, clean air, a safe climate, and time with loved ones?

It’s time to flip the script.

🌱 Why Is Growth Worship Problematic?

The global economic system has been built to depend on growth. That’s why letting go of it feels so difficult:

• Most money is created as debt. Debt needs interest. That demands growth.

• Companies are chained to shareholder profits. If earnings stall, stocks plummet.

• Governments fund everything from schools to hospitals through taxes tied to GDP.

• We’re constantly encouraged to buy more, upgrade, and throw away to keep the wheels turning.

• Companies are under pressure to deliver ever-rising profits to shareholders.

• Jobs are tied to growing industries, so if growth slows, people worry about losing their jobs.

• Bigger economies often mean more global influence and power for nations.

• And at a deeper level, we’ve absorbed a cultural fear that without growth, everything will fall apart.

✈️ Rethinking Rostow’s Stages of Growth:

W.W. Rostow presented the "5 Stages of Economic Growth" in the 1960s, ending in the "age of high mass consumption". Decades later, Kate Raworth in her book "Doughnut Economics" suggested including 2 new stages to bring us into a more sustainable, human-centred 21st century.

1.The Traditional Society

• Subsistence economy based on agriculture, with limited technology

• Little social mobility or innovation

• Power concentrated in traditional elites (landowners, monarchs, etc.)

• A pre-industrial society, with minimal scientific or technical development

2.The Preconditions for Take-Off

• More productive farming and early commercial practices emerge

• Influences from outside (trade, investment, colonisation) begin to shape change

• Infrastructure like roads, banks, and schools begins to take root

• Political and social structures start shifting away from tradition

• Society starts laying the groundwork for industrial growth

Today, this stage also calls for rethinking how we create money, who owns what, what businesses are for, and how we measure progress—moving beyond GDP toward well-being, equity, and ecological health.

3.The Take-Off

• Rapid industrialisation kicks off in key sectors (like textiles or steel)

• Investment climbs to over 10% of national income

• Supportive political and institutional reforms emerge

• Urbanisation gains momentum

• Self-sustaining growth begins, with a major shift from farming to industry

4.The Drive to Maturity

• Technology spreads across all parts of the economy

• Industrial base becomes more diverse and advanced

• Dependence on imports decreases

• Education and infrastructure expand significantly

• The economy becomes more complex and productive

5. The Age of High Mass Consumption

• Consumer goods and services dominate the economy

• Disposable income rises and consumption increases

• The welfare state grows alongside mass consumption

6. Preparation for Landing

• A growing awareness of the environmental and social costs of endless growth

• Gradual shift away from GDP as the main scoreboard

• Systemic changes begin in finance, governance, and the economy to support well-being without needing constant expansion

• New models like circular economies, cooperative businesses, and regenerative practices gain ground

• Equity, resilience, and ecological regeneration become guiding values

• Society begins redesigning its core systems to support a just and sustainable future

7. Arrival

• The economy operates within planetary boundaries and meets everyone’s basic needs

• Regenerative and distributive systems become the new normal

• Success is measured by well-being, fairness, and ecological health, not growth

• Less focus on consumerism, more on purpose, connection, and sustainability

• Growth may happen, slow down, or reverse—but it’s no longer the goal

• We land in an economy that operates within planetary boundaries. We meet everyone’s basic needs. Regeneration becomes the default. We measure success in well-being, resilience, fairness, and joy.

  We stop chasing growth. We start choosing what the world needs: sometimes expansion, sometimes contraction, sometimes stillness...

🌿 How "Thriving" Looks Like Without Growth

We don’t need more stuff to feel alive. What the research shows is this: happiness comes from five simple human acts—all free, all meaningful:

• Connecting to people around us;

• Being active in our bodies;

• Taking notice of the world;

• Learning new skills;

• Giving to others.

These build a resilient, fulfilled, deeply human society.
And not one of them requires a booming stock market.

👀 We’re All Economists Now

We all have the opportunity and capability to shape this evolution because our options and actions continuously remake the economy. We do this not with a PhD or a seat at the IMF, but we do this with our choices. What we choose to buy, where we choose to bank, and how we choose to live.

Every choice you make ripples through the system, nudging it toward destruction or regeneration. Think about it:

That morning coffee? It’s not just a drink - it’s a signal.
Is it fair trade? Locally roasted? Packaged with care for the planet?
Or mass-produced on the backs of underpaid farmers and stripped forests?

Your choice.

Every day, you shape the economy with the choices you make, and below are a few you can make now:

• 🏦 Move your money to ethical banks → divest from harm, reinvest in good

• 🤝 Use peer-to-peer currencies → create local resilience

• 🌱 Build businesses with purpose → not just profit

• 👶 Take parental leave, share care work → change what the economy values

• 📚 Contribute to open knowledge commons → create abundance, not scarcity

• 🗳️ Join movements that reflect your vision → rewrite the rules of the game

These aren’t small acts. They are the story of who we are and who the economy is for.