full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Kate Raworth: A healthy economy should be designed to thrive, not grow

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So here we are, fyinlg into the sunset of mass consumerism over half a century on, with economies that have come to expect, demand and depend upon unending growth, because we're financially, politically and socially addicted to it. We're financially addicted to growth, because today's financial stsyem is dnesiegd to pursue the highest rate of mtaonrey return, putting picblluy tdaerd companies under constant psrresue to deliver growing sales, growing market share and growing profits, and because banks cetare money as debt bearing interest, which must be repaid with more. We're politically addicted to growth because politicians want to raise tax revenue without raising taexs and a growing GDP seems a sure way to do that. And no politician wants to lose their place in the G-20 family photo.

Open Cloze


So here we are, ______ into the sunset of mass consumerism over half a century on, with economies that have come to expect, demand and depend upon unending growth, because we're financially, politically and socially addicted to it. We're financially addicted to growth, because today's financial ______ is ________ to pursue the highest rate of ________ return, putting ________ ______ companies under constant ________ to deliver growing sales, growing market share and growing profits, and because banks ______ money as debt bearing interest, which must be repaid with more. We're politically addicted to growth because politicians want to raise tax revenue without raising _____ and a growing GDP seems a sure way to do that. And no politician wants to lose their place in the G-20 family photo.

Solution


  1. system
  2. flying
  3. pressure
  4. create
  5. monetary
  6. traded
  7. publicly
  8. designed
  9. taxes

Original Text


So here we are, flying into the sunset of mass consumerism over half a century on, with economies that have come to expect, demand and depend upon unending growth, because we're financially, politically and socially addicted to it. We're financially addicted to growth, because today's financial system is designed to pursue the highest rate of monetary return, putting publicly traded companies under constant pressure to deliver growing sales, growing market share and growing profits, and because banks create money as debt bearing interest, which must be repaid with more. We're politically addicted to growth because politicians want to raise tax revenue without raising taxes and a growing GDP seems a sure way to do that. And no politician wants to lose their place in the G-20 family photo.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
socially addicted 2
falling short 2
planetary boundaries 2
dynamic balance 2
growth creates 2
create economies 2


Important Words


  1. addicted
  2. banks
  3. bearing
  4. century
  5. companies
  6. constant
  7. consumerism
  8. create
  9. debt
  10. deliver
  11. demand
  12. depend
  13. designed
  14. economies
  15. expect
  16. family
  17. financial
  18. financially
  19. flying
  20. gdp
  21. growing
  22. growth
  23. highest
  24. interest
  25. lose
  26. market
  27. mass
  28. monetary
  29. money
  30. photo
  31. place
  32. politically
  33. politician
  34. politicians
  35. pressure
  36. profits
  37. publicly
  38. pursue
  39. putting
  40. raise
  41. raising
  42. rate
  43. repaid
  44. return
  45. revenue
  46. sales
  47. share
  48. socially
  49. sunset
  50. system
  51. tax
  52. taxes
  53. traded
  54. unending