Tim Jackson Quotes

#1. In short, avoiding the scourge of unemployment may have less to do with chasing after growth and more to do with building an economy of care, craft and culture. And in doing so, restoring the value of decent work to its rightful place at the heart of society.

Tim Jackson

#2. Big companies are reliant on institutional investors on a punishing schedule which leads to ruthless behaviour. This form of capitalism with this structure and incentives will never deliver sustainability.

Tim Jackson

#3. Questioning growth is deemed to be the act of lunatics, idealists and revolutionaries. But question it we must.

Tim Jackson

#4. On the mathematical side, you could in principle build a society in which people were fulfilling their needs and flourishing as human beings in a higher way than in a consumer society, provided you had the right investments in the opportunity to flourish in less materialistic ways.

Tim Jackson

#5. Novelty is adaptive when things are changing and you need to adapt yourself. Tradition is essential to lay down the stability to raise families and form cohesive social groups.

Tim Jackson

#6. We spend money we don't have, on things we don't need, to make impressions that don't matter.

Tim Jackson

#7. Every society clings to a myth by which it lives. Ours is the myth of economic growth.

Tim Jackson

#8. Firms produce goods for households - that's us - and provide us with incomes, and that's even better, because we can spend those incomes on more goods and services. That's called the circular flow of the economy.

Tim Jackson

#9. The most staggering linguistic turnabout for me is the one that equates green economy with 'sustained economic growth.'

Tim Jackson

#10. Status-driven, conspicuous consumption thrives from the language of novelty.

Tim Jackson

#11. [We are] persuaded to spend money we don't have on things we don't need to create impressions that won't last on people we don't care about.

Tim Jackson

#12. The philosophical point is that our happiness and wellbeing is not based on incomes rising. This is not just the wisdom of sages but of ordinary people. Prosperity is more social and psychological: it's about identification, affiliation, participation in society and a sense of purpose.

Tim Jackson

#13. The idea of a non-growing economy may be an anathema to an economist. But the idea of a continually growing economy is an anathema to an ecologist.

Tim Jackson

#14. Our own relentless search for novelty and social status locks us into an iron cage of consumerism. Affluence has itself betrayed us.

Tim Jackson

#15. There is a real fear around shifting from our existing economic system because people believe it gives us social organisation, a sense of freedom, and the ability to be nice to each other. Growth is seen as a social lubricant that allows us to be socially responsible.

Tim Jackson

#16. It is the accuracy and detail inherent in crafted goods that endows them with lasting value. It is the time and attention paid by the carpenter, the seamstress and the tailor that makes this detail possible.

Tim Jackson