Moving away from growth is not as wild as it might seem. For decades we’ve been told that we need growth in order to improve people’s lives. But it turns out this isn’t actually true. Beyond a certain point, which high-income countries have long surpassed, the relationship between GDP and social outcomes begins to break down. This should not be particularly surprising. GDP is an indicator of aggregate production, as measured in terms of real market prices. As we’ll see in Chapter 4, it’s not increasing aggregate production that
