Do No Harm

I was in a polite and superficial debate with an old friend recently about our economic models, going forward.

He is a staunch defender of old-school economics, but with some recognition of the failure of “profit at all costs” and “perpetual growth” thinking.

Rather than address the many injustices, inequities, abuses and injuries (caused generally in someone else’s backyard an ocean away) by our “cheap” consumer items in our current “more stuff” economy, I said this:

“Let’s keep it simple and take on for future economic systems the credo adopted long ago by the medical profession: Do No Harm. if we can achieve that, however we find to do it–and harm extends most definitely to vital ecological services and plant and animal populations and habitats–then people on both sides of the current divide can work together towards that common, just and sustainable goal.”

I stand by that claim.