FITOO versus FINAO : Why DOUGHNUT ECONOMICS is wrong.
June 30, 2021
There is a certain kind of economic thought that has many different names, but they can all be summarised as “FAILURE IS THE ONLY OPTION”, or FITOO, if you like acronyms.
What they all have in common is an acceptance and resignation to existing dynamics and also an unwillingness to submit solutions to change those dynamics.
Today’s example is “Doughnut Economics”.
https://doughnuteconomics.org/about-doughnut-economics
Doughnut Economics posits that the current combination of social inadequacies and ecological constraints means we should moderate our existence and crouch down and hide in the middle of the doughnut between the two extremes.
The only actions that seem to be prescribed are marginal ecological measures and helping the poorest.
If you have a set of social inadequacies and ecological constraints and you are a smart person with a good degree from a good institution, you should already have a set of possible solutions to the inadequacies and constraints.
In other words, better to just sort the deficiencies and constraints.
“FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION” is a much better approach. FINAO, for the acronym obsessed.
FINAO means a rejection of existing, economic or otherwise, systemic dysfunction and deficiencies and also the submission of solutions to resolve those dysfunctions and deficiencies.
Why do some economists seem FITOO and others seem FINAO? If indeed such perceptions are accurate, the answer to the perceived preferences may be more psychological than economic. It may be an aversion to risk. It may be an innate conformity to well established viewpoints. I do not know that answer.
But the distinction is important because if FITOO economists have influence over policy makers we are far less likely to solve our problems and far more likely to enter into a period of general drift and decline.
You could argue that this has been the case for the last few decades.
There are good FINAO economists offering good solutions and they are the economists that policy makers should listen to.
