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There are other ways of doing things.
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we have cashed out prosperity almost literally in terms of money
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and economic growth and we've grown our
economy so much
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that we now stand in a real danger
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of undermining hope running down resources, cutting down rain forests
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spilling oil into the Gulf Mexico
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changing the climate
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and the only thing that has actually
remotely slowed down the relentless rise
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of carbon emissions over the last two to
three decades is recession
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and recession of course isn't exactly
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a recipe for hope either so we're caught in
a kind of trap
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it's a dilemma of growth we can't live
with it we can't live without it
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but I want to concentrate
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on the role of investment in seeking
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out novelty because it turns out that
human beings
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have something of an appetite for novelty
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we love new stuff, new material stuff for sure but also new ideas
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new adventures new experiences
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but the materiality matters too
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because in every society that
anthropologists have looked at
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materials stuff operates as a kind of a
language, a language
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of goods, a symbolic language that we
used to tell each other stories
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stories for example, about how important
we are
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status driven conspicuous consumption
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thrives from the language of novelty
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Adam Smith, two hundred years ago
spoke about
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out desire for a life without shame
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in his day what that meant was a linen shirt
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today well you still need the shirt but
you need the hybrid car, the HDTV
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two holidays a year in the Sun, the netbook
an iPad
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the list goes on. Even if we don't want
them
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we need to buy them because if we don't
buy them the system crashes
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Who are we?
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Are we these novelty-seeking hedonistic
selfish individuals?
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Or might we actually occasionally be
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something like the self depicted in
Rembrandt's
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lovely sketch here
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there is a tension, a tension between
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self regarding behaviors and other
regarding behaviors, and these tensions
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have deep evolutionary roots, so selfish
behavior is
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adaptive in certain circumstances, fight
or flight
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but other-regarding behaviors are
essential to
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our evolution as social beings
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and perhaps even more interesting from
our point of view another tension
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between novelty
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seeking behaviors and tradition
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or conservation; novelty is adaptive when
things are changing and you need to
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adapt yourself
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tradition is essential to lay down the
stability to raise families and form
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cohesive
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social groups so here all a sudden
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we're looking at a map of the human
heart and it reveals
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to us suddenly the crux of the matter;
what we've done is we've created economies
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we've created systems which systematically
privilege
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encourage one narrow quadrant
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of the human soul and left the others
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unregarded
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and in the same token the solution
becomes clear because this
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isn't therefore about changing human
nature; it isn't
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in fact about curtailing possibilities; it is about
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opening up
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it is about allowing ourselves the freedom
to become
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fully human
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recognizing the depth and the breadth of
the human psyche
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and building institutions to protect
Rembrandt's
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fragile 'altruist within'
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what is all this mean for economics?
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We need the economy to reconceive
investment
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only now investment isn't going to be
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about the relentless and mindless
pursuit
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of consumption growth
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Investment has to be in the new economy protecting
and nurturing the ecological assets on
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which our future depends.
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It has to be about transition
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investing in low-carbon
technologies
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and infrastructure
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we have to invest it in the idea of a
meaningful prosperity providing
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capabilities for people to flourish
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and of course this task
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has material dimensions. It would be nonsense
to talk about people
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flourishing if they didn't have food,
clothing, and shelter but it's also clear
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that prosperity goes beyond this, it has
social and psychological aims.
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family, friendship, commitment society
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participating in the life of that society
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and this
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too
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requires investment
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Investment for example in places
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places where we can connect; places where
we can participate; shared spaces
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gardens, concert halls
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public parks, libraries, museums
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places of joy and celebration; places of
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tranquility and contemplation
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prosperity is a shared endeavor
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its roots are long and deep. it's
foundations exist already
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inside each of us
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what we doing here is taking a few
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simple steps towards an economics fit
for purpose
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and at the heart of the that economics
we're placing
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a more credible more robust and more
realistic vision
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what it means to be human