Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist

by Kate Raworth

third factor is aspiration: whatever people consider necessary for a good life. And one of the biggest influences on our aspirations is how and where we live. In 2009, humanity went urban, with over half of us living in cities and towns for the first time in history, and 70% of us are expected to be urbanites by 2050. City living tends to amplify the influence of surrounding crowds and of advertising billboards whose images promise that a better life is just a purchase away, stoking up desire for faster cars and slimmer laptops, for exotic holidays and the latest-craze gadgets. As economist Tim Jackson deftly put it, we are ‘persuaded to spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need to make impressions that won’t last on people we don’t care about’.