Stephen Yearwood
2 min readJul 22, 2022

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I have an idea to contribute and the only means I have is to spread the word as much as possible about this proposal of mine. It is not something I came up with this morning. It is fully developed. It could be implemented in any nation via a single legislative Act

The single biggest obstacle to achieving environmental sustainability is economic growth. The single biggest driver of economic growth is the political imperative that exists in every nation to maximize total output, in order to maximize employment, total income, and the collection of taxes (at whatever rates of taxation exist). My proposal would have total output governed, passively but effectively, by demographics.

Many people don’t realize how revolutionary the idea of seeking to achieve environmental sustainability is. Though this proposal is a forthrightly revolutionary idea, there is nothing in it to which anyone could object. It does not involve more regulation of or intervention in the economic system by government (or the central bank, for that matter): the existing economy would actually become fully self-regulating. It would not impose any cost on employers. It would not impose any limit on income/wealth. It would not require people to act any particular way. Though it would end unemployment and poverty (at any level of total output), it would not involve any redistribution of anything.

Many incremental steps, taken fast enough, could allow us to achieve sustainability. This macro-level economic approach would be faster, would do nothing to hinder other efforts, and would also solve other problems for society related to the economic system.

If curious, a brief ("4 min read") introduction to the proposal, with links for more about it, is in "Permanent 'Quantitative Easing'" here in Medium (but none of it behind the paywall).

This idea needs advocates.

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Stephen Yearwood
Stephen Yearwood

Written by Stephen Yearwood

M.A. in political economy (money/distributive justice) "Please don't confront me with my failures/ I'm aware of them" from "These Days," as sung by Gregg Allman

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