Policymakers worldwide are grappling with a cascade of crises: accelerating climate change, ecological breakdown, entrenched poverty and inequalities, energy and housing insecurity, political polarisation and geopolitical tensions - all while facing severe fiscal constraints that hinder effective responses to these complex challenges.

What do these issues have in common? They are all symptoms of economic systems that are designed to incentivise short-term profit over long-term wellbeing, financial growth over living systems, and extraction over regeneration. But despite decades of research on the Limits to Growth, when working in government, the answer to almost every problem remains that we need more of it: High unemployment? Growth will create new jobs. Green transition? Growth will fund it. Entrenched poverty? Growth will rescue the poor.

As Clive Hamilton, Professor of Public Ethics, put it, “If the answer to the problem is always more growth, then who dares ask the question: What if the problems are caused by economic growth?”. What if our economic systems undermine the very foundations of decent lives, resilient societies and a healthy planet?

Current efforts to address our polycrisis tend to retrofit sustainable development goals into existing economic systems that are unsustainable by design. As a result, many governments find themselves stuck in a cycle of constantly needing to ‘fix’ what our economic systems continue to break. It’s time to stop that cycle and to redesign our economic systems so that they are fit for the 21st century.

Enter the world of wellbeing economics, where GDP takes a backseat to wellbeing and the bottom line is about balance. Wellbeing economics is not about band-aids or quick fixes. It's about rebuilding a system from the ground up where people and the planet can thrive in harmony; where long-term flourishing trumps quarterly growth; and regeneration replaces exploitation.

Creating economic systems fit for the 21st century

Redesigning our economies starts with rethinking what goals our economies are here to serve. In a wellbeing economy, growing production and consumption is not the goal. Instead, the goal of a wellbeing economy is to provide social and ecological wellbeing. A wellbeing economy is about creating economic systems that do good for people and the planet first time around, rather than relying on a ‘growth-first-then-redistribute-and-clean-up-later’ approach.

Donella Meadows has described how changing the goal of a system is one of the most powerful leverage points for creating systemic change, because goals shape the structure and behaviour of a system. Redefining the goals of our economic systems urges policymakers to take a much more nuanced approach to economic development, nurturing those economic activities that contribute to the wellbeing of people and the planet (such as nature regeneration, education, health care, and social enterprises) and powering down those economic activities and ways of working that may increase GDP but harm social and environmental wellbeing (such as worker exploitation, low-grade manufacturing and carbon luxuries).

The good news is that governments don’t have to start from scratch. There are many practical case studies that show how governments can work towards a wellbeing economy:

Join the conversation

From a National Strategy for an Impact Economy (Enimpacto) in Brazil to wellbeing budgeting in New Zealand and Ireland, from a Ministry of Imagination in Mexico City to Future Design in Japan, from the Gross National Happiness (GNH) approach in Bhutan to the Early Intervention Investment Framework in Victoria (Australia) and from democratising workplaces in Spain to Community Wealth Building and Permanent Citizens' Councils. Together, these case studies from around the world show that other ways of structuring our economies and economic decision-making are possible.

Join us for the conversation on how to create economic systems that are fit for the 21st century. People and the planet can’t wait.

Make sure to share your own thoughts with the author by leaving a comment below