Growth

Outline

Growth (2024) examines humanity’s long pursuit of economic growth, how it lifted billions out of poverty, and why it now faces serious challenges such as inequality and environmental damage. Daniel Susskind argues that simply stopping growth is not the answer. Instead, he shows how societies can pursue a better kind of growth driven by ideas and innovation, guided by clear values about what we want progress to achieve.

• Economic growth lifted billions of people out of poverty, which is a large part of why humanity has chased it for so long.
• Growth now faces serious challenges, including inequality and damage to the environment.
• Susskind argues that simply stopping growth is not the answer to these problems.
• A better kind of growth can be driven by ideas and innovation.
• Societies need clear values about what they want progress to achieve before they decide how to pursue it.

Daniel Susskind is a British economist and writer who studies technology, work, and economic growth. He is a research professor at King’s College London and a senior research associate at the University of Oxford, and previously worked as a policy adviser in the British government. His books include A World Without Work, The Future of the Professions, written with his father Richard Susskind, and Growth.