[D66] 'Mindless growth': Robust scientific case for degrowth is stronger every day

[A.OUT]

'Mindless growth': Robust scientific case for degrowth is stronger every day
By
irishtimes.com
4 min
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Once confined to the small scientific community of climate researchers 
and ecological economists, the idea of degrowth is now blazing into the 
mainstream. Not surprisingly, people are trying to figure out what to 
make of it. Is it an inspiring idea that points the way to a better 
economy? Or is it a mad notion that’s sure to plunge us all into poverty?

Degrowth is a planned reduction of total energy and material use to 
bring the economy in line with planetary boundaries, while improving 
people’s lives by distributing income and resources more fairly.

The scientific case for degrowth is robust, and gets stronger every day. 
We know that high-income nations – including Britain and Ireland – must 
make dramatic and very rapid reductions to their emissions in order to 
avert dangerous climate breakdown, cutting carbon at a rate of about 15 
per cent per year. This will require a massive mobilisation to roll out 
all the solar panels, wind turbines and nuclear power stations we need 
to get to net zero.

But there’s a problem. Because high-income nations consume so much 
energy, it may not be feasible to generate renewables quickly enough to 
stay within a fast-shrinking carbon budget. According to climate 
researchers, the only way to make it work is to reduce total energy use.

This isn’t just a matter of individual behaviour change, like installing 
energy-efficient light bulbs – although of course we need that. It’s a 
matter of fundamentally changing how our economies operate.
"The evidence is clear: we can thrive in an economy that uses less."

Most people don’t realise it, but the majority of our energy use doesn’t 
happen in households. It’s used to power the extraction, production and 
transportation of material stuff: everything from smartphones to 
refrigerators, cars to container ships. By reducing the material 
“throughput” of our economy – the amount of stuff we produce and consume 
– we can reduce our energy demand. Not only does this make it easier to 
accomplish a rapid transition to renewables, it also takes significant 
pressure off of living ecosystems.

One way to do this is to stop allowing companies to bloat their profits 
with planned obsolescence, selling products that are designed to break 
down simply to increase turnover. In fact, we could even roll out 
legislation to require longer product lifespans. If fridges and washing 
machines last twice as long, we will use half as many. Better yet, we 
can also introduce rights to repair, so we can get our phones and 
microwaves fixed for cheap instead of having to replace them when they 
break. We can shift from private cars to public transportation. And we 
can limit advertising in public spaces to liberate people from the 
psychological pressure for needless consumption.

Perhaps even more importantly, we can choose to actively scale down 
energy-intensive industries and wasteful luxury consumption: like the 
arms trade, SUVs and McMansions.

The good news is that we can do all of this without any negative impact 
on people’s health, happiness or well-being. The evidence is clear: we 
can thrive in an economy that uses less.
Resistance

But here’s the catch. Policies such as these, as sensible as they may 
be, meet with enormous resistance. Why? Because ultimately it means 
scaling down aggregate economic activity, and that may well lead to less 
gross domestic product (GDP). For any mainstream economist or 
politician, this sets off alarm bells. It’s the exact opposite of how 
we’re told the economy should operate. What about employment? What about 
incomes?

The new generation of ecological economists have thought through this in 
detail – and the solutions are surprisingly simple. If we reduce working 
hours we can redistribute necessary labour without any loss of total 
jobs. Toss in a job guarantee and we can have three-day weekends for all 
and full employment at the same time. To make up for lost hours, we can 
introduce a living-wage law, or roll out a universal basic income. And 
we can provide retraining programmes to make sure workers can move 
painlessly from dirty industries to cleaner ones (after all, some 
industries will still need to grow in a degrowth scenario).

To understand how this is possible, we need to grasp a simple fact. The 
vast majority of new income from GDP growth doesn’t benefit ordinary 
people – it goes straight to the very richest. Despite massive growth in 
high-income nations over the past few decades, in many cases wages and 
median incomes have stagnated and poverty rates are up. Most people have 
gained little in terms of health and happiness.

In other words, we’re all working needlessly long hours to generate 
continued economic growth, with deadly consequences for our living 
planet, all so that a rich elite can get even richer.
Abundant economy

Once we wake up to this madness, the solution becomes clear. We already 
live in an abundant economy. Ireland and Britain are among the richest 
nations on Earth; the problem is that all of their income and wealth is 
captured at the top. We don’t need yet more growth, driving yet more 
toxic inequality. On the contrary, we can improve people’s lives right 
now, without any growth at all, simply by sharing what we already have 
more fairly. Equity is the antidote to the growth imperative.

What does this look like in real life? It means higher wages for 
workers. It means a more progressive tax system to fund generous public 
goods like healthcare, education, community centres and parks, so that 
people can access the things they need to live long, flourishing lives. 
It means an economy by and for the 99 per cent.

The principles of post-growth economics can deliver both climate 
stability and a thriving society as part of the same package. It’s time 
to break free from the shackles of mindless growthism and evolve toward 
a better, more just, more ecological economy for the 21st century.

Dr Jason Hickel is an anthropologist, author and fellow of the Royal 
Society of Arts