Degrowth - Giorgos Kallis
[bq] “We already produce enough - actually much more than enough. And yet we are stuck in a one-way future in which all we can think of is producing even more.”
[bq] “‘Degrowth’ marks a ruthless critique of the dogma of more - the dogma of economic growth.”
1. What is degrowth
[bq] “If humanity is not to destroy the planet’s life support systems, the global economy should slow down.”
Need a whole new economy, a more stable one, since “growth economies collapse without growth.”
Degrowth as a movement started around the new millennium, but its roots in economic theory go back at least to the 1960s when MIT economists Rachel Carson and Donella Meadows published “The Limits of Growth”, and other criticism of growth followed.
[bq] “Right from its birth in France [in the early 2000s], the degrowth community has been an amalgam of research and action - a mixture of researchers, professors, activists and downshifters, who lived as they professed.”
It’s a growing community now, with a research conference every two years. In 2014, 4000 academics attended.
[bq] “Economic growth is a concept developed by economists."
Degrowth comes from two directions: from outside, criticizing economic thinking itself, but also from inside economics, considering the risk and cost of growth which can outweigh the benefits.
[bq] “The problem is not only that the economy cannot or should not grow. Our very ideas of what an economy is are wrong.”
[bq] “Degrowth is not negative growth.”
It’s not the same as recession or depression. GDP can in theory still go up, but likely won’t.
[bq] “Degrowth refers to a trajectory where the ’throughput’ (energy, materials and waste flows) of an economy decrease while welfare, or well-being improves.”
GDP is a bad measure of welfare, but it seems to correlate rather well with environmental damage.
Degrowth urges us to reduce throughput. Whether output also decreases is a different matter. Very likely that that’s the case, but doesn’t have to.
“Green growth” focused on increasing GDP while staying environmentally positive. Degrowth on the other hand doesn’t care about GDP, but welfare.
French economics professor Serge Latouche, one of the founders of the degrowth movement, has a concept called the “eight Rs”; one of them he describes as:
[q] “Reevaluating, that is, valuing the ‘pleasure of leisure’, for example, or the ‘ethos of play’ instead of material possessions.”
- Serge Latouche
[q] PhD researcher Aaron Vansintjan at Birbeck, University of London, imagines a society after degrowth with, among other things,
“surpluses expended in popular feasts, philosophy or leisure, instead of invested for more growth; and conviviality and caring for one another, and for non-human living beings.”
Previous civilizations have flourished under this kind of model.
Admits that a degrowth society sounds utopian, and also that switching over our current economy to this mindset would lead to economic disaster/collapse. Instead, need small steps to rebuild economy from ground up.
2. The economics of degrowth
[Just skimmed this chapter]
[bq] “Economy is the instituted process of interactions between humans and their environments, involving the use of material means for the satisfaction of human values.”
3. Economic growth from a degrowth perspective
[bq] “Growth is not only a material process; it is also a cultural, political and social process. Growth is an idea produced, imagined and instituted.”
[bq] “I call this idea ’the growth paradigm’: the idea that perpetual economic growth is natural, necessary and desirable.”
[bq] “By logical necessity economic growth must come to an end, independently of what one measures or how. Constant compound growth of anything quickly runs to infinity.”
But that thought doesn’t help determine when growth will come to an end.
[bq] “The balance between productive and unproductive expenditures is a perennial problem of capitalism: too much productive expenditure means there is not enough expenditure to absorb the surplus; too little and there is no growth.”
Human and non-human resources are the “fuel” for growth, and they too will eventually run low.
As easy to reach energy sources are depleted, the energy return on investment (EROI) decreases. Can show that statistically once this falls below a 11:1 ratio, growth halts.
Current renewables have a very low EROI, lots of energy needs to be invested to get energy back out.
[bq] “New technologies such as artificial intelligence, robots and driverless cars […] promise to revolutionize communication and the processing of information, increasing the efficiency with which work is converted into useful output. But growth cannot be sustained solely by more efficient communication and organization (what we called ‘productiveness’): it also requires fresh amounts of work.”
Argues that we would rather need a third “Prometheus technology”, a new energy technology like fire and stem engines. This cannot be ruled out (e.g. fusion), but relying on this is foolish.
[bq] “Even if growth were to continue, this would be unnecessary and undesirable since the human and environmental cost would be unbearable.”
4. The case for degrowth
Happiness/social-wellbeing only correlate with income up to a certain point, then flatten off.
[bq] “What I suggest here is that the degree to which well-being depends on income is a function of dependence on markets - it is not some universal fact.”
Objective measurements of well-being (e.g. GPI or ISEW) have all been stagnant over the last few decades. Above a certain GDP per capita find no increase of these with more GDP.
Life expectancy and relative poverty also do not improve with growth past a certain point.
But growth does come with a huge ecological cost.
As a result, argues that growth is “uneconomic”.
Carbon emission and GDP are directly related. Growth leads to more emissions.
“Green growth”, while not completely impossible, is highly implausible.
At first, changing the infrastructure to renewables would come at a huge cost, dampening growth. And eventually as growth continues, need more and more surface area covered with e.g. wind/solar farms. Unless we assume that we can constantly improve technology, sustained growth is physically impossible.
[bq] Degrowth proposition: “A transformation of society with a concomitant reduction in economic activity and throughput is not only necessary, and desirable, but also possible.”
Degrowth is not the same as negative growth.
[bq] It is “a path where living conditions improve while throughput, and in all likelihood output, shrinks.”
The agenda of the degrowth research program is to find out how and under what conditions this can happen.
Even if possible, achieving political change will be difficult.
[bq] “Unlike ecological laws, however, political systems can change. It was hard to end slavery, but it was not impossible. It is impossible, though, to change the law of entropy.”
5. The utopia of degrowth
[bq] “Taking resources and time out of the production circuit and instead devoting them to politics and leisure or to spending time with family and friends slows down the economy. A slower economy provides less material goods, but this is not a problem because relational ‘goods’ grow and compensate for the loss of material goods.”
Emotional work and care will be a big part of a degrowth society.
[bq] “A universal basic income is then a wage for uncounted care work or reproduction - an income that compensates everyone for their unpaid care work.”
[bq] “A basic income is not necessarily a disincentive to work; unlike unemployment benefit, one does not lose it by getting a job.”
[NFW: Doing nothing gets boring very quick, and many people opt for much more active forms of time off if given the chance. UBI takes some of the risk from trying an uncertain and challenging pursuit. It is very likely that the arts, entrepreneurship, and moonshots would flourish as a result.]
Facilitates wealth redistribution to those who decide to contribute to society through currently unpaid “jobs” like care or creative work.
Essentially a tax on the rich; overall tax increase, but for those above a certain threshold this tax will be higher than the benefit they receive.
[bq] “Spain suggests that a basic income of €400-600 per month could be funded through increased taxation, leaving the after-tax income of the middle classes unchanged, redistributing from the very rich to the very poor.”
But: If not tied to high minimum wage, will just lower pay for the poor. Also people get more reliant on government. Also question of immigration and who is entitled to UBI.
The end of fossil fuel is coming, whether we want it to not. Under the current growth economy this will lead to disaster. Implementing degrowth early enough could lead to a less dramatic outcome.
6. Controversies, debates and future research
Is aware that the term “degrowth” might not be the most socially convincing; “unattractive”, but also says ti has the potential of a “missile slogan”.
Argues that a transition to degrowth is unlikely to be easy or smooth.
[bq] “It is unlikely that technology will allow the economy to grow while resources and energy use degree to the level necessary. […] If this is right, then the future will by necessity be one of lower throughput - the question is whether it will be by design or by disaster.
The spread of the degrowth imaginary creates the conditions needed to turn the disaster into a desired future.”
[bq] “When facing an uncertain future, we have to study all possibilities.”
Argues that more research is needed.
[bq] “You may agree or disagree with the degrowth prognosis and diagnosis, but you cannot deny that they raise inconvenient questions that we can no longer afford to ignore."