Social Limits to Growth

Fred Hirsch (University of Warwick, USA)

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English

Routledge
15 September 2025

Economic theory & philosophy; Macroeconomics; Economic growth; Political economy; Economic history

Series: Routledge Classics

Fred Hirsch's Social Limits Growth is one of the sleeper hits of economics. Its brilliant and acute insights, informed by Hirsch’s experience as a journalist at The Economist before turning to academia, have become ever more relevant as liberal capitalism confronts challenges from austerity to the global race for scarce resources.

Hirsch makes the case for what he calls ""positional goods"", which derive their value from being scarce in ways that can’t be relieved by technological advancement, such as a Rembrandt painting, a priceless antique or even an elite, private education. Crucially, Hirsch says, their value lies in the social position their ownership allows one to occupy. He contrasts them with material goods, such as flushing toilets, opportunities to travel, and high-quality food. There is no such positional status afforded by their ownership because, despite a relatively high cost at their introduction, soon everyone has them. Once such material goods cease being luxuries, people begin to want other things, which Hirsch memorably and prophetically describes as ""the needs of the mind and psyche"". But these only serve to entangle us in an inescapable war between consumers, as each of us strive to be better than average, reflecting the very limits described by the title of Hirsch's book.

A devastating account of the way consumerism, conspicuous consumption and the expectation to be better off than the last generation undermine the delicate social capital that has previously bound individuals and communities together, Social Limits to Growth is a book whose message is more urgent now than on its first publication nearly fifty years ago.

This Routledge Classics edition includes a new Foreword by Daniel Halliday.

By: Fred Hirsch (University of Warwick USA)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
Weight: 674g
ISBN: 9781041109280
ISBN 10: 1041109288
Series: Routledge Classics
Pages: 258
Publication Date: 15 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Fred Hirsch was an Austrian-born British economist and Professor of International Studies at the University of Warwick. Born in Vienna in 1934, after the Austrian Civil War, his family emigrated to Britain. Hirsch graduated at the London School of Economics in 1952 before working as a financial journalist on The Banker and The Economist, where he was financial editor from 1963–1966. He was a senior adviser to the International Monetary Fund from 1966 to 1972, before becoming a research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, from 1972 to 1974. Already the author of several books, it was here that he started work on his best-known work, Social Limits to Growth (RKP, 1977). In 1975 he joined the University of Warwick as Professor of International Studies, where he worked until his death in 1978 at the age of forty-four.

Reviews for Social Limits to Growth

'Important books are rare. They are all the more welcome when they appear; and one need have no hesitation in naming as a classic Fred Hirsch’s new analysis of the inherent defects of the market economy as an instrument of human amelioration.' - Peter Jay, The Times 'An exceptionally interesting, original, and well-written book on one of the most important themes: what are the fruits of economic growth and why do they seem increasingly disappointing?' - The Economic Journal 'This highly original book makes a compelling argument that affluence, by creating a kind of congestion (much more than simple crowding), limits the welfare attainable by society as a whole.' - Foreign Affairs 'Important books are rare. They are all the more welcome when they appear; and one need have no hesitation in naming as a classic Fred Hirsch’s new analysis of the inherent defects of the market economy as an instrument of human amelioration.' - Peter Jay, The Times 'An exceptionally interesting, original, and well-written book on one of the most important themes: what are the fruits of economic growth and why do they seem increasingly disappointing?' - The Economic Journal 'This highly original book makes a compelling argument that affluence, by creating a kind of congestion (much more than simple crowding), limits the welfare attainable by society as a whole.' - Foreign Affairs