The UK's recovery must be political as well as financial if it is to be sustainable, the Scottish Green Party's co-leader said on Saturday.
Patrick Harvie said a change of political culture and values was needed to stop people living beyond their means.
The Glasgow MSP addressed activists at the party's two-day conference in Dumfries.
He said: "For a recovery, however we might define that word, to be truly sustainable, it must be a political recovery as well as economic.
"It must be a recovery of values that were lost from the political establishment at least 30 years ago, and probably twice that. Those values will challenge the absurd idea that what matters in our lives can be measured in GDP terms alone, that people's worth is determined by what they consume, and that the fetishisation of extreme wealth is harmless."
Speakers at the conference included former Liberal Democrat councillor Martin Ford, who chaired the council committee that originally rejected US tycoon Donald Trump's plans for a golf resort in Aberdeenshire.
The Scottish Greens say they have seen a seven percent increase in membership in the last year which now numbers around 1,000.
Mr Harvie called on activists to redouble the party's efforts to listen to the public's concerns and make a "robust case" for voting Green.
The co-leader described as "sickening" the way political debate in the wake of the financial crisis had moved on to what cuts should be made and where.
He said: "There can be no doubt that we have been living beyond our means economically and ecologically for far too long, and that there were always going to be consequences.
"Living beyond our means can be fun for a while but it cannot last. The consequences that we are now living with are partly the result of political failure and partly the result of market failure.
"It is sickening that the debate has moved on so swiftly to arguments about which public services should be cut first and when to start cutting.
"Sadly, we in Scotland are faced with the consequences of continuing political and market failure."
Last updated: 31 October 2009, 18:04
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