The Permacrisis is Making the Public Sector Unaffordable

“Over coming decades, government spending is set to rise from 45% of GDP to 60%. Government debt from 98% of GDP to over 300%. The cause? A combination of climate change, economic shocks, international conflict, an ageing population, poor population health and persistently weak productivity. It is difficult to overstate the significance of this. It shows that our society, built on consistent economic growth providing reliable tax revenues to fund state-delivered public services is no longer sustainable. The world we have built and come to rely on since at least 1945 is over… we need new thinking and practice in every area of life well beyond the realm of state action. Currently, that is happening only at the margins. It needs to become mainstream rapidly.”