The Guardian has reported that Oxford University has published a report supporting what is, in effect, exactly what the Green New Deal has been calling for over the last 12 years. It said:
Green economy recovery packages for the coronavirus crisis will repair the global economy and put the world on track to tackle climate breakdown, but time is running out to implement the changes needed, new analysis has shown.
Projects which cut greenhouse gas emissions as well as stimulating economic growth deliver higher returns on government spending, in the short term and in the longer term, than conventional stimulus spending, the study from Oxford University found.
Many of the projects that could create new jobs in the UK are “shovel-ready”, compliant with social distancing requirements and could be started quickly, said Cameron Hepburn, director of the Smith School of enterprise and the environment at Oxford University and lead author of the study.
What was that old saying?
First, they ignore you.
Then they laugh at you.
Then they fight you.
And then Oxford University says you were right all along?
I think that's how it went.
But joking apart, of course the report is right: we just need to do it.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Good for those Green New Dealers sticking to exactly the same hymn as 12 years ago.
Have a coffee and muffin and a well-deserved break for the rest of the week.
No way….
There is work to do
And we have not stuck to the same hymn
We have refined it
That phrase (“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”) is popularly attributed to Gandhi, for example by Donald Trump in 2016 amongst others, but no one has been able to turn up the original quotation, and it is considered “misattributed” by the likes of Snopes and Wikiquote. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/first-they-ignore-you/ https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi#Misattributed
Something similar was said by the American trades unionist Nicholas Klein in 1914: “First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”
And Tony Benn said something similar several times, for example: “First they ignore you, then they say you’re mad, then dangerous, then there’s a pause and then you can’t find anyone who disagrees with you.”
It works, whoever said it
Like so many things like this, it’s real virtue is that we recognise the truth in it
Yes, let’s get on with it.
Listening to Keir Starmer on Radio 4 (yes, I still listen to it..) I thought that it would be good for someone (Richard..) to communicate with him on MMT and Green New Deal. If you can get someone of his standing to fully comprehend how this works, and really ‘get it’, then it would be a good step forward.
I try….
Brilliant! Excellent news. Let’s hope those that hold the purse strings are listening.
And of course, thank you and the GND group for championing this line of thought for so long 🙂
I like the similar rendition from the American Philospher William James:
When a thing was new people said, “It is not true”. Later, when the truth became obvious, people said, “Anyway, it is not important”, and when its importance could not be denied people said, “Anyway, it is not new”.
Let us hope so – we all know that academic economists tend to be dominated by neo-liberalism even in our most highest seats of learning and they have a lot to answer for.