For decades our political leaders and opinion makers have touted higher incomes as the way to a better future but after many years of sustained economic growth and increased personal incomes we must confront an awful fact: we aren't any happier. In this provocative new book, Clive Hamilton argues that, far from being the answer to our problems, growth fetishism and the marketing society lie at the heart of our social ills. Growth Fetish is the first serious attempt at a politics of change for rich countries dominated by sicknesses of affluence, where the real yearning is not for more money but for authentic identity, and where the future lies in creating a society that promotes the things that really do improve our well-being. 'Right on target and badly needed.' Noam Chomsky

About the Author

Clive Hamilton is Executive Director of The Australia Institute, Australia's foremost public-interest think tank. He has held visiting academic positions at the ANU, University of Sydney, University of Technology Sydney and the University of Cambridge. Described in the press as Australia's most influential economist on the left and Australia's leading environmental economist, he is the author of six books and his views feature regularly in major news outlets.

Reviews

"'If people aren't getting any happier as they go on getting richer, why do we continue to trash the planet and turn people into consumptive zombies in pursuit of economic growth? There is a conspiracy of silence about all this which simply has to be broken.' Jonathon Porritt, Chairman of the British government's Sustainable Development Commission"