{"id":1121,"date":"2025-10-02T04:02:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/shrink-for-prosperity\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:02:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:02:48","slug":"shrink-for-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/global-green-economics\/shrink-for-prosperity\/","title":{"rendered":"Shrink For Prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"middle content\">\n<div class=\"column left\" id=\"columnleft\">\n<section class=\"block article author\">\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<h3>About the author<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-content\">\n<div class=\"about-author\">\n<div class=\"tleft\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/var\/broker\/storage\/images\/authors\/register-richard\/149537-1-eng-gb\/register-richard_author.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"tright\">\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/register-richard\/\">Richard Register<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRichard Register is a theorists and author in ecological city design and planning and is Presiden&#8230;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/register-richard\/\">full profile<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"block article author\">\n<div class=\"headline\">\n<h3>Tags<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"inline-content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_3\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6577\/\">population<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_10\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/7299\/\">sustainable agriculture<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_1\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\">urban planning<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_9\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6477\/\">sustainable development<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_4\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6337\/\">economic theory<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_2\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6526\/\">water management<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_4\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6278\/\">partnership<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_6\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6286\/\">development policy<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_4\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6616\/\">identity<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_7\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/7280\/\">environment<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_8\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6454\/\">capitalism<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_5\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6434\/\">well-being<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_8\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/7399\/\">policy<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_4\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6253\/\">interdisciplinary research<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_10\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6616\/\">identity<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"weight_1\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/display\/articles\/6546\/\">ecology<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<section class=\"content column wide left blog_post content view\" id=\"content\">\n<article class=\"fader\">\n<header class=\"contents\">\n<div class=\"share\">\n\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n    var addthis_config = {\n        ui_language = 'en'\n    }\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis sharing\">\n\t<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style\" addthis:title=\"Shrink for prosperity\">\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_twitter\" tw:via=\"thebrokeronline\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_facebook\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_pinterest_share\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_preferred_4\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_button_compact\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t<a class=\"addthis_counter addthis_bubble_style\"><\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n<p>\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">var addthis_config = data_track_addressbar;<\/script><br \/>\n\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t<!-- AddThis Button END -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"addthis article_options\">\n\t\t<!-- \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/mandrill\/subscription\/add\/6334\/9376\">Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t -->\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShrink for prosperity<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/register-richard\/\">Richard Register<\/a>\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t04 August 2025<br \/>\n\t<\/header>\n<div class=\"body contents\">\n\t<!-- body --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">If we take up less room there\u2019s room for all of us, including the other animals and the plants of this planet. There are three largest categories of shrinking back to this generosity of living: 1.) heading toward far fewer of us, leaving room for a smaller \u201call\u201d of us humans, 2.) reducing the scale and impact of our agriculture system and 3.) building our cities, towns and villages literally much smaller, based on the human body\u2019s dimensions and needs for energy, shelter and land as compared with building cities for the demands of automobiles. Get those three very large topics covered and we might just get to live here in style (if not oppulent waste) for a long, long time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Small is beautiful, small is survival, small means thriving deep into the future. This is the theme of my next book, the one I\u2019m working on now, working title: \u201cShrink for Prosperity \u2013 Last Chance for a Happy Future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">&nbsp;The current economic and ecological \u201ctruths\u201d couldn\u2019t be farther apart. Grow, grow, grow is the mantra of the faith-based economists just as the macro signs are going stunningly negative. Climate change, collapsing species world-wide and approaching limits of various resources aren\u2019t just God\u2019s idea for planet-destroying entertainment of the sort so much in vogue now among movies made by humans. All those disasters are moving faster than any evolutionary change in the history of the Earth shy of flyswatter asteroids of the sort that hit around every 100 million years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">So we have a macroproblem in macroeconomics. The more of us and the more for each of us isn\u2019t yet recognized in economic theory circles as soon to blow out our planetary fuses in this finite world hemmed in by the lithosphere on one side and space on the other. The answer: physicaleconomics, paying attention to what is actually physically happening and basing future economics around that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">&nbsp;My new book leaves to the economists what they do well: the fine tuning of a little more or less taxing, interest and corruption regulating (when they actually do it), money printing and so on to adjust the investment strategies that see the world economy as a kind of neutral OK thing to be accepted and profited from. But what to actually build and how to actually live in our built, agricultural and natural environments \u2013 go to ecological models to figure out the economics, that really counts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">There\u2019s a race to the finish now. Family planning works in some places quite well, but cumulative population growth is still with us. Organic and intensive agriculture, farmers markets and the like are growing but massive agricultural growth is still with us too and much bigger. Cities are seeing more and more pedestrian, transit, natural restoration and urban agriculture progress, while in most of the world they are paving ever more land for cars. As said, it\u2019s a race to the finish now. Let\u2019s hope it\u2019s not us to be finished. Last chance for a happy future.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p>\t\t<!-- body -->\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<section class=\"commentform content column wide left\">\n<div class=\"disqus_content\">\n\t\t<a name=\"comments\" id=\"comments\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"disqus_thread\"><\/div>\n<p>        <script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n            \/* * * CONFIGURATION VARIABLES: EDIT BEFORE PASTING INTO YOUR WEBPAGE * * *\/\n            var disqus_shortname = 'broker'; \/\/ required: replace example with your forum shortname\n            var disqus_identifier = '5458';\n            \/* * * DON'T EDIT BELOW THIS LINE * * *\/\n\t\t\tfunction trackComment(comment)\n            {\n                console.log(comment);\n            }\n\t\t\tfunction disqus_config() {\n                this.callbacks.onNewComment = [function() { \n                console.log(comment);\n                }];\n            }\n\t\t\t(function() {\n                var dsq = document.createElement('script'); dsq.type = 'text\/javascript'; dsq.async = true;\n                dsq.src = '\/\/' + disqus_shortname + 'https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/blogs\/global-green-economics\/.disqus.com\/embed.js';\n                (document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0] || document.getElementsByTagName('body')[0]).appendChild(dsq);\n            })();\n        <\/script><br \/>\n        <!--\n        <noscript>Please enable JavaScript to view the <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\/?ref_noscript\">comments powered by Disqus.<\/a><\/noscript>\n        <a href=\"http:\/\/disqus.com\" class=\"dsq-brlink\">comments powered by <span class=\"logo-disqus\">Disqus<\/span><\/a>\n        -->\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/section><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>About the author Richard Register Richard Register is a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_3.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1121","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Shrink for prosperity \/ Global green economics \/ Blogs - The Broker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If we take up less room there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room for all of us, including the other animals and the plants of this planet. There are three largest categories of shrinking back to this generosity of living: 1.) heading toward far fewer of us, leaving room for a smaller \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of us humans, 2.) reducing the scale and impact of our agriculture system and 3.) building our cities, towns and villages literally much smaller, based on the human body\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dimensions and needs for energy, shelter and land as compared...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/global-green-economics\/shrink-for-prosperity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shrink for prosperity \/ Global green economics \/ Blogs - The Broker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If we take up less room there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room for all of us, including the other animals and the plants of this planet. 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There are three largest categories of shrinking back to this generosity of living: 1.) heading toward far fewer of us, leaving room for a smaller \u00e2\u20ac\u0153all\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of us humans, 2.) reducing the scale and impact of our agriculture system and 3.) building our cities, towns and villages literally much smaller, based on the human body\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dimensions and needs for energy, shelter and land as compared...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/global-green-economics\/shrink-for-prosperity\/","og_type":"article","og_title":"Shrink for prosperity \/ Global green economics \/ Blogs - The Broker","og_description":"If we take up less room there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s room for all of us, including the other animals and the plants of this planet. 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