The Steady State Economy and the Mission of the U'S' Fish and Wildlife Service

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The Steady State Economy
What it Is, Entails, and Connotes
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• By Brian Czech and Herman Daly
• Internet version compliments of Brian Czech,
  Center for the Advancement of the Steady State
  Economy
• See full-text article at
• www.steadystate.org/files/SSE.pdf

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• Economic Growth
• Increase in the production and consumption of
  goods and services
• Typically expressed in terms of GDP
• Facilitated by increasing
• population
• per capita consumption

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Fundamental Conflict Between Economic Growth and
Wildlife Conservation
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K
Natural capital allocated to wildlife
GNP
Natural capital allocated to human economy
Time
Czech, B. 2000. Economic growth as the
limiting factor for wildlife conservation.
Wildlife Society Bulletin 28(1)4-14.
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PDF files for these articles available at The
Wildlife Society website www.wildlife.org.
(Follow links to Wildlife Society Bulletin.)
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• Some Empirical Evidence
• Causes of Species Endangerment
• as a Whos Who
• of the American Economy

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Endangerment Causes

• Urbanization
• Agriculture
• Water diversions (e.g., reservoirs)
• Recreation, tourism development
• Pollution
• Domestic livestock, ranching

• 247
• 205
• 160
• 148
• 143
• 136

Czech et al. 2000. Bioscience 50(7)593-601.
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Causes (cont.)

• Mineral, gas, oil extraction
• Non-native species
• Harvest
• Modified fire regimes
• Road construction/maintenance
• Industrial development

• 134
• 115
• 101
• 83
• 83
• 81

Czech et al. 2000. Bioscience 50(7)593-601.
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Wildlife Conservation and Steady State Economy
K
To conserve wildlife...
GNP
...maintain steady state economy sufficiently
below K.
Time
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But what about technological progress?
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• Consider the Sources
• Research and development
• Corporate profit
• Economies of scale

13





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• Steady State Economy
• Stable production and consumption of goods and
  services
• Indicated by stable GDP
• Stabilized
• population
• per capita consumption
• throughput

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Implications of a Steady State Economy
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• Quality of Life
• Steady in a material sense
• Increasing in a holistic sense
• Sustainable
• Ever higher relative to quality in bloating
  economy

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• Jobs
• Ceteris paribus, constant
• Change with economic development
• Optimal size of economy for wildlife biologist
  jobs

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• Bank Accounts
• Steady
• Sustainable
• Size determined by size of economy
• non-linear
• optimal size for given population
• Indicative of ecological footprint

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What About the Stock Market?
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• No Bull

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• But No Bear

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• Stock Markets
• Needed for capital maintenance
• Winners and losers
• Sustainable
• Stable

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Wouldn't the SSE require a socialist government?
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• Political Economy
• Capitalist/socialist rhetoric misleading
• Constitutional democracy conducive
• capitalist markets for private goods
• socialist markets for public goods
• Capitalist horse with democratic rider

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How Big Should a Steady State Economy Be?
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• How Much Wildlife?
• Smaller economy means more wildlife
• Issue for American public and polity
• Both need knowledge of conflict

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Why is a SSE more appropriate for U.S.?
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• Thats Easy
• Feasibility
• Capability
• International leadership
• Equity
• Only the beginning

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Exhortation!
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• TWS Position on
• Economic Growth

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• TWS Position on
• Economic Growth
• Back it.

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• TWS Position on
• Economic Growth
• Back it.
• Back a strong version.

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• TWS Position on
• Economic Growth
• Back it.
• Back a strong version.
• Back the reinsertion of the steady state economy
  clause.

34
K
The End
GDP
Time