Likewise, it is easy to imagine a society in which there is no growth but people are relatively content; go and try to explain to the isolated Sentinelese tribe why they ought to be maximizing their development and see how they feel about it. “The Case for Degrowth does what its title promises; it assertively advocates for a society and economy that aim at the wellbeing of all while also sustaining the natural basis of life, refuting the myth of green growth, and providing a clear compass to evaluate the directionality of sustainability transitions.” These factors will be “squishy,” in that there will not be a scientific way to resolve disputes about what they are or which should take precedence. It implies that while right now our economies grow continuously, that growth is environmentally destructive, and actually what we need to do is shrink them all. Both Mazzucato and Hickel emphasize that the central problem is not that the economy grows, but that the economic system is irrational. As Mazzucato explains, this represents a shift in how the economy is talked about. This book is unlike any other on degrowth, in that it is the first to try to address the hard question of 'how to' in the current political conjuncture. As are millions of men working in essential jobs including sanitation, trucking, taxi-driving, and meat packing. Image credit: Socialdemencia, Share The World's Resources They fear what the future may look like and so they should. Degrowth is a project of living meaningfully, enjoying simple pleasures, commoning, sharing and relating more with others, and working less, in more equal societies. Degrowth is a project of living meaningfully, enjoying simple pleasures, commoning, sharing and relating more with others, and working less, in more equal societies. Conditions like the ones we are living through now. Powerful actors will try to reconstitute status quo arrangements, and to shift costs to those with less power. And many care workers go to work because they must … It doesn’t have to be this way. More of whatever has a price in the market.) Mazzucato gives the example: if she marries her housekeeper, and they are doing the exact same work but in the context of a personal relationship rather than an employment relationship, the GDP will go down. After the pandemic is over, and the difficult path of economic reconstruction starts, this resurgent dynamism of commoning and care will be vital. You can get The Case for Degrowth from Earthbound Books UK or my US store. A Current Affairs subscription is one of the best known ways to improve your life in a hurry. Hickel asks us to think of the growth of economies the way we would think of the growth of a plant or a human. For a third party (the economist) to say that the transaction is not valuable is to impose subjective value judgments. Degrowth is a project of living meaningfully, enjoying simple pleasures, commoning, sharing and relating more with others, and working less, in more equal societies. Hickel does say that the ideology of limitless growth is irrational, and that excessive resource consumption in extremely rich countries needs to be curbed, but “degrowth” is not a kind of plea to return to nature and give up the wondrous benefits of technological development (you will pry my iPhone from my dead hands, though I will support any political platform that promises to abolish Microsoft Word). One thing we do know is that the case for degrowth will remain as relevant as ever.We make a case for attributing current ecological disequilibrium and a range of social ills to the relentless pursuit of growth. (Not that increased consumption is a good proxy for well-being even for the upper classes—the lives of the super-rich are often hollow and unsatisfying, because it turns out that having 40 cars does not give you four times the satisfaction of having 10 cars.). It takes organizing and a confluence of alliances and circumstances to ensure that it won’t be the environment and the workers who pay the bill, but those who profited most from the growth that preceded this disaster. Degrowth, … Growth in market value, on the other hand, is something we can measure, even if that measurement tells us almost nothing about our actual well-being. In this crisis, like others before, people have mobilized and self-organizedwhere businesses and governments have failed to provide for their needs – from mutual aid groups delivering food and medicines for elders, to groups of doctors, engineers, and hackers collaborating to 3-D print components for oxygen ventilators, to students babysitting the children of doctors and nurses. Mazzucato points out that confusing market worth for actual worth has encouraged the absolutely absurd idea that “the private sector produces the wealth, while governments can only tax it away,” and while some government services are necessary, they always feed on the productivity of the private sector rather than creating value by themselves. The EU needs a stability and wellbeing pact, not more growth. And all done in tasteful black-and-white, to look extra-classy on your coffee table. Its benefits may be negligible, say 50 jobs and the toy plastic SpongeBobs that it manufactures. Degrowth is not forced deprivation, but an aspiration to secure enough for everyone to live with dignity and without fear; to experience friendship, love, and health; to be able to give and receive care; to enjoy leisure and nature, and to legitimize a life that it is also an experience of interdependence and vulnerability. How can we measure qualitative factors, and won’t any metric of success always be biased toward things that are most easily measurable? History often evolves with punctuations; periods of seeming paralysis can reach a tipping point, when unexpected events open new possibilities and violently close others. The United States, as we know, simply expelled the Native population from its land (and then had the audacity to tell the world about the importance of private property rights). And many care workers go to work because they must earn a living. Suddenly, things take radical new directions, and the unthinkable becomes thinkable, for better or for worse. 4854864. 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