Thread by @WEAll_Alliance

1/ Ok so if you haven’t heard, we launched a report called ‘Failure Demand’. What does #FailureDemand mean? It’s a concept that explains the cycle of paying to band-aid problems - that continue to break.

If you haven’t read the report, do so here: weall.org/failuredemand.

2/ Huh? Quick Econ-101🤓 Our current system creates a lot of ‘damage’ that the government is required to respond to. This includes widening economic inequalities, high levels of insecurity, despair, loneliness & the prospect of catastrophic climate breakdown & biodiversity loss.

3/ The report explains that much of this damage can be avoided if we just had a more socially just, sustainable economic model - *cough cough* a #WellbeingEconomy 🌞

4/ It dives deep into #Canada and #Scotland as case studies to measure exactly how much money is spent on costs that could have been avoided. There are e sections; Paid Work 🔨, Housing🏠 & The Environment🌱

5/ PAID WORK🔨 The traditional mantra is that more jobs = increased prosperity. The metric of success is a low unemployment rate. However, this values *quantity* over *quality* - and in fact low quality employment opportunities present a very high cost to the state.

6/ In Scotland, in-work poverty and precarious work create profound direct & indirect costs to individuals, their families, and the state. According to this graph - households with low-income cost the state over £327 million on average per annum between 2014/15-2018/19.

7/ HOUSING🏠 Affordable hosing has declined in many rich countries partly because housing is seen as a human investment *not a right* & the countries that adhere to the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism are those that have seen the greatest decline in affordability of housing.

8/ In Alberta, the estimated societal costs of homeless for four major Canadian cities from low to high estimates, 2005 is shown below. The societal cost of homelessness in Alberta was $1.05 billion in public programs and other supports.

9/ ENVIRONMENT🌱 Remedial work to attend to the consequences of climate change is driving increased government spending. Meaning? Invest UPSTREAM to prevent flooding, rather than incurring costs of bailing people out of their flooded homes downstream.

10/ In Alberta, the bitumen production produces roughly 2.7 billion tonnes of CO2e constituting a carbon liability (or societal cost) of $132 billion.

....yes that's BILLION.

11/ So what do we do? Read the report 😉 & lets work together to realign our economic purpose to mirror the lived experiences and aspirations of people and the reality of our shared *interdependence* with a healthy, thriving planet.

12/ Also if you missed us in @BBCNews, check out the article here that also does a nice summary of the report: bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…

Thanks for coming to our #FailureDemand TedTalk 🤪 now let's get to it!!