In modern Australia, productivity is all that matters, our leaders tell us. Economic growth above all else. But is this really what we, the people, want? Does it make our lives and our communities better?

If the high priests of economics want the credit for Australia's economic growth over the last three decades, they must also wear the blame for the social destruction that has accompanied it - the devastation of once prosperous industrial centres and the suburbs they sustained, as factories closed and workers were forced to abandon their trades. The social costs of this 'economic...