ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by examining the contemporary global crisis of economic growth as an inescapable ethical challenge. The crisis assumes the following form: current forms of economic growth threaten the Earth and aggravate inequalities but the absence of some form of economic growth threatens continued poverty for almost a third of the humans living in poverty as well as economic instability in many industrialized countries. The chapter examines how this crisis can be responsibly addressed not by no growth, slow growth, or continuation of economic growth as currently understood but by adopting an alternative way of thinking about growth and several basic principles as guides for fostering responsible economic growth. The chapter proposes defining economic growth in terms of the development and protection of generative economic assets and then analytically distinguishing between production and the consumption of economic goods and services. With reference to public policies, the actions of firms, and the practices of households, the chapter calls for consuming sustainably, producing productively and collaborating globally.
