To solve today’s crises, economics must move beyond masculine ideas of output growth

India’s economic growth is not producing enough jobs for its youth. AI will not solve the problem. We need systemic solutions.

Instead, we are trying to re-arrange chairs on the deck of the Titanic. For insufficient job creation, our answer is faster GDP growth. But given the economy’s employment elasticity (number of jobs created, i.e., with each unit of GDP growth), it must grow at 12% annually to produce sufficient jobs.

For the problem of too few women at work holding growth back, our answer is to enrol more women in formal jobs. The complication? With overall jobs limited, women will compete with men in a job-scarce market. For the problem of low-productivity farm work keeping India’s overall productivity down, our answer is to move people from farms and rural areas into cities and industry.

Complication: Cities and industries are not providing enough jobs with decent wages. For the problem of AI displacing human labour, the answer is to employ more people in care-giving work that AI cannot do. Complication: Who will pay for care services? The market may not expand that quickly and state budgets may be unable to afford the bills.

For the problem of unpaid care-giving services in ‘informal’ family and community settings, the answer is to value this work more. Complication: Equating the worth of human beings with their income and wealth is a deeply ingrained social norm. If more money has to be paid for it, who will pay it? Such inter-connected problems cannot be solved separately by specialists in their respective fields.

A feminine worldview is required to solve them at a systemic level. If we tackle them bit by bit, the solution to one can backfire on others. It is common sense that intractable problems cannot be