♾️ The Möbius Economy — Growth that returns to itself
One surface. No “away.”
🧠 UX Interpretation: Circulation without extraction
The circular economy promises reuse. The doughnut economy defines safe boundaries between ecological limits and human needs. Both attempt to soften the sharp edge of endless growth.
The Möbius Economy goes further. It treats the system as a single continuous surface. Profit feeds wages. Wages fund public goods. Public goods enhance productivity. Productivity reduces waste. Waste re-enters production. There is no externalised “elsewhere.”
🎯 Theme: No outside
Traditional economics assumes expansion into new space. The Möbius model assumes a closed loop. Environmental damage, poverty, health decline, inequality — these are not externalities. They return along the same surface.
Governments experimenting with this framework adjust tax to reward regenerative behaviour. Automation gains are partially socialised. Resource extraction carries reinvestment obligations. Welfare is reframed as infrastructure.
The premise is simple. What you underfund today returns as cost tomorrow. What you invest today, compounds across the same surface.
💡 UX Takeaways
- Externalities are design failures.
- Closed systems demand long-term thinking.
- Regeneration can replace extraction as a growth model.
- Public investment strengthens private stability.
- Systems behave differently when there is no “away.”
📎 Footnote
The Möbius strip has only one side. Move far enough and you return to where you began. An economy designed on that principle assumes consequences circulate. Growth that damages its own surface is not growth. It is delay.