We Need to Talk About Growth
Ali Morris
Across the globe politicians are full of promises to make life better for the people. They promise to “grow the economy”, but in an era of impending climate collapse, is that really what we should be focusing on? And does a continuously growing economy actually make life better?
We live in capitalism, a system which requires continuous growth to sustain its never-ending quest for profit accumulation. We also live on a planet with finite resources which cannot sustain this quest. The hyper-consumerist lifestyles of people in the global north (GN, also global minority) are depleting the earth’s natural resources at an unsustainable rate, while emissions are changing our climate faster than even doomsayer scientists had predicted. We believed climate breakdown was something that would happen beyond our lifetimes and that we would have time to fix things before it got really bad, but many are waking up to the fact that it has already begun, and we are running out of time to put things right. We urgently need a drastic reduction in energy consumption by countries in the GN, which means addressing our addiction to growth.
The use of GDP (gross domestic product) to measure economic growth has been ubiquitous since the mid-20th century. Originally developed during World War 2 as a method of tracking military spending, it was broadened to encapsulate the entire post-war economy as a way of comparing nations’ development. Its inventor, Simon Kuznets, explicitly cautioned against its use in this fashion. The problem with this metric is that it doesn’t include many of the things that are essential to human wellbeing, such as care work, raising a family, and crucially, damage to our environment. GDP focuses on the value of goods produced, regardless of their impact on society. A million euros of weapons is equal to a million euros of healthcare. If someone is employed to clean up an oil spill, GDP goes up. Consequently, high GDP is not an indicator of social wellbeing, as we know all too well in Ireland - one of the richest nations in the world with a housing crisis deemed a human rights issue by the United Nations, and a failing health system.
GDP also neglects to measure how our appetite for endless growth affects people in the global south (GS, also global majority). Our economies depend on the extraction of resources and labour from the GS on an unimaginable scale. Capitalism was birthed in the colonial era and since Columbus “discovered” the Americas 500 years ago, the west has plundered GS nations for resources to maintain its “civilised” lifestyle. This theft is still ongoing. Estimates put the level of resource drain from south to north at a staggering $152 trillion, while GS nations struggle to develop their economies and their citizens lack access to the basic requirements for life, as they already bear the brunt of climate change. In fact, the global south has been actively underdeveloped by wealthy nations to maintain access to cheap resources and labour. The notion that the GN provides assistance through development aid is a myth. It might surprise readers to know that, according to Global Financial Integrity, for every dollar of aid sent from north to south, twenty-four dollars is extracted. So, in reality, the global south is subsidising our development in the north, and we need to reckon with our part in the perpetuation of this colonial arrangement that denies the majority of the world’s population a decent, dignified life.
We can no longer justify the overconsumption that is a feature of western lifestyle, one that is making us sicker and unhappier, while destroying the only planet we have. Solutions already exist. Degrowth, postgrowth, eco-socialism, call it whatever prevents you from falling into a pit of red scare, provides a new narrative that offers us an off-ramp from our current apocalyptic trajectory. These policy proposals advocate for a planned scaling down of production, starting with the most destructive and unnecessary.
“the idea that we can tackle the climate emergency without tearing up the mainstream economic rulebook is a fairytale”
Aidan O’ Regan says “the idea that we can tackle the climate emergency without tearing up the mainstream economic rulebook is a fairytale” and he is right. Our current capitalist economic system cannot provide us with a way out. We need a new narrative. Degrowth provides this narrative, and it turns out these ideas have very broad public support, although terminology matters. Degrowth does tend to invoke recession and a fall in living standards. However, when survey respondents were presented with the policies (without mentioning degrowth by name) such as universal public services, public job guarantees and shortened working weeks, a whopping 85% support a degrowth or post growth society.
Researchers at the University of Leeds estimate that the earth can sustain 10 billion people, all with decent standards of living, at 40 per cent of the energy we use today. Dispelling the racist and classist “over-population” myth , the study concludes that “it is overconsumption by the world’s wealthiest people that needs to be reduced” so that everyone can have a decent life.
These are real, workable policies which, if implemented now, give us a real chance for survival. A chance for economic democracy where we can choose what is produced and for whom. A public job guarantee could offer a transitional path away from existing environmentally and socially destructive forms of production, toward a system organised around meeting fundamental social and ecological needs. Research into modern monetary theory (MMT) offers exciting prospects for how to fund this transition to a new society.
Post-growth is no longer a fringe movement. In 2023 the EU granted €10 million for the REAL project out of UAB Barcelona whose team are researching various aspects of a degrowth future, and how we take these ideas from academia to real life. The task ahead is enormous, but many hands make light work. And given the choice, would you rather work in what David Graeber termed bullshit jobs for okay money but subpar social infrastructure and services, or would you get stuck in and do something meaningful and actually necessary for society while having more time on your hands for hobbies, family & friends? The choice is ours and it’s not a utopia; it’s a very real possibility.
As the late Ursula K. le Guin said, “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.” Let’s get to work.
Ali Morris is a recent graduate of the M.A. in Degrowth: Ecology, Economics & Policy at ICTA-UAB, Barcelona and the project & event coordinator for Go Leor and the Regenerative Democracy Project.
