The Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand: Reconciliation with Environmental Sustainability

This paper argues that a sustainable industrial system depends not only on good environmental and public health outcomes, but also on sustainable employment and earning capacity in a sustainable economic system. These concerns are likely to dominate future national political debates, requiring respo...

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Main Authors: Ashford, Nicholas A., Hall, Ralph, Ashford, Robert
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. 2021
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/131051
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author Ashford, Nicholas A.
Hall, Ralph
Ashford, Robert
author_facet Ashford, Nicholas A.
Hall, Ralph
Ashford, Robert
author_sort Ashford, Nicholas A.
collection MIT
description This paper argues that a sustainable industrial system depends not only on good environmental and public health outcomes, but also on sustainable employment and earning capacity in a sustainable economic system. These concerns are likely to dominate future national political debates, requiring responses that increase the earning capacity of individuals through changes in the nature of work and employment, and in the ownership of productive capital. Making the economy greener, while certainly necessary for long-term economic and societal survival, does not necessarily mean more and better paying jobs on a large enough scale to make serious progress to reducing unemployment and underemployment. At present, national and global reforms are focused on improving the financial system, which is not synonymous with reforming the economic system or improving the economic status of individual citizens. This paper discusses specific policies and initiatives that need to be considered to ensure sustainable employment and livelihoods.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1310512021-06-25T03:19:43Z The Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand: Reconciliation with Environmental Sustainability Ashford, Nicholas A. Hall, Ralph Ashford, Robert This paper argues that a sustainable industrial system depends not only on good environmental and public health outcomes, but also on sustainable employment and earning capacity in a sustainable economic system. These concerns are likely to dominate future national political debates, requiring responses that increase the earning capacity of individuals through changes in the nature of work and employment, and in the ownership of productive capital. Making the economy greener, while certainly necessary for long-term economic and societal survival, does not necessarily mean more and better paying jobs on a large enough scale to make serious progress to reducing unemployment and underemployment. At present, national and global reforms are focused on improving the financial system, which is not synonymous with reforming the economic system or improving the economic status of individual citizens. This paper discusses specific policies and initiatives that need to be considered to ensure sustainable employment and livelihoods. 2021-06-24T21:51:31Z 2021-06-24T21:51:31Z 2012 Article https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/131051 en_US Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions.
spellingShingle Ashford, Nicholas A.
Hall, Ralph
Ashford, Robert
The Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand: Reconciliation with Environmental Sustainability
title The Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand: Reconciliation with Environmental Sustainability
title_full The Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand: Reconciliation with Environmental Sustainability
title_fullStr The Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand: Reconciliation with Environmental Sustainability
title_full_unstemmed The Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand: Reconciliation with Environmental Sustainability
title_short The Crisis in Employment and Consumer Demand: Reconciliation with Environmental Sustainability
title_sort crisis in employment and consumer demand reconciliation with environmental sustainability
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/131051
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