Die natürlichen Grenzen der Ökonomie: Plädoyer für eine ökologische Schuldenbremse
With economical and ecological crises unsettling markets and people, the question whether there are limits to growth is back with new urgency. The following article gives voice to both sides of the ongoing growth controversy. It analyses the current political debate, and looks at its foundations in economic theory. We argue that economics should take up the new challenges and explore if and how stability and welfare can be sustained in modern market economies without the necessity of continuous growth. At the political level, actively constraining growth cannot be the solution. Instead, ecological boundaries that must not be transgressed should become the starting point for policy. Therefore, we propose an ecological debt brake that limits the extent to which we borrow from nature and thus impair the chances of future generations.
Leipprand, A. and N. aus dem Moore (2012), Die natürlichen Grenzen der Ökonomie: Plädoyer für eine ökologische Schuldenbremse . Leviathan: Berliner Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft, 40, 2, 173-201