It has been a long time since I enjoyed an economics book as much as Daniel Cohen’s The Infinite Desire for Growth.
Mr Cohen puts all the major socio-economic and political trends of the past few years into perspective and looks at where we are heading. His book poses serious questions for the financial services industry and our role within this new context.
Mr Cohen examines the origins of economic growth from the early days of civilisation to present day, looking at trends through millennia rather than centuries or decades.
He ends with the new digital economy and near zero-cost production replacing humans in factories, inexpensive software replacing humans in offices and the consequences of our exploitation of the natural world coming together in a perfect storm of a kind perhaps not seen before.
The hope of better things to come is the universal religion – in eastern religions, it is all about personal growth and letting go of material goods.
Over the past millennia, we have been seduced by the promise of a better world through economic growth – we can all be Bill Gates or Elon Musk if only we focus, adopt the habits of the most effective leaders and work relentlessly.
We are now at a crossroads where the prospects for economic prosperity look bleak and working hard no longer guarantees social inclusion or income. I was staggered to read that in the US, 80 per cent of the population has seen no increase in purchasing power over the past 30 years.
The obsession with wanting more in a world where many of us will not have jobs to earn and resources are already stretched is giving rise to tensions within and between countries – Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump make a lot of sense in economic terms.
In the final chapters, Mr Cohen looks at how we can best deal with weak economic growth by moving away from the current culture of competition, individual desire and material gain, towards a future more focused on happiness and well-being.
As we all know at some level, money does not buy happiness.
In a financial services industry obsessed with investment returns, we are going to have to rethink in a world where less is more and wealth is not automatically associated with success.
It will require more than just a marketing exercise to play our role and make this shift to a world where the young, women and more enlightened men should increasingly feel at home.
Anna Sofat is founder of Addidi
(Published by Princeton University Press)
