Sponsored by the Quaker Institute for the Future, the Moral Economy Project is about to release a new book, by Garver and Brown, entitled Right Relationship: Building for a Whole Earth Economy. The two authors' presentation at the library explored the themes of the book, which critiques mainstream economic theory from an environmental and social perspective.
Though sparsely attended, with only about 20 in the audience, the lecture and slide presentation was recorded for possible use in a future video production. Copies of the new book were also available for sale.
Following an introduction by library Executive Director Lynn Verge, Westmount resident Brown began by discussing the first chapter of the book, about the purposes of the economy. Traditionally, he said, the economy is aimed at purposes such as keeping inflation low and Gross Domestic Product growing; this perspective, he pointed out, ignores a number of issues, such as the costs of GDP growth on natural resources, and the way income is distributed within society. “We’re proposing a really quite basic adjustment to the basic idea [of macroeconomic growth],” said Brown, “which is that you’ve got to include the stability of the biosphere.”
Garver then discussed the themes of the third chapter of the book, “How big is too big?” Garver noted that growth had negative consequences such as increased waste and species loss, and questioned whether continual growth was worth establishing as a societal goal: “We’re not anti-growth, necessarily,” he said. “We just don’t think growth is the paradigm that should be driving the economy.”
Brown and Garver noted that they appreciated the amount of work that had to be done to change society’s aims at the level they were proposing, but said that their Quaker background gave them encouragement. “We draw inspiration from our own understanding of right relationship and from Quaker history,” said Garver, citing the ultimately-successful grass-roots campaign by Quakers to end the slave trade in England. “We’re hoping that a similar thing can happen with the situation facing us now.”
During the subsequent question-and-answer period, the audience raised a range of issues, including overpopulation, advertising, and the lack of regulation in Canada compared with the European Union. In conclusion, Verge presented Brown and Garver with honorary memberships at the Atwater Library and Computer Centre, and noted that the library had a strong collection of works on environmental themes, due to a bequest from the late Mona Elaine Adilman for the purchase of material on the subject of the environment, art, and architecture.
Right Relationship, written by Brown and Garver with Keith Helmuth, Robert Howell, and Steve Szeghi, has already drawn praise from numerous experts in its field, including former US President Jimmy Carter. The Moral Economy Project is planning further activities to promote Right Relationship, including an upcoming book launch in Philadelphia, followed by a Montreal launch in February at the Paragraphe book store. A major symposium at Old Montreal's Bonsecours Market in May will be dedicated to the principles of the book.
More information about The Moral Economy Project may be found online at www.moraleconomy.org.
