Attending the recent Beyond Degrowth Aotearoa conference got me thinking about how we achieve social change on a scale that ensures we avoid hitting societal roadblocks
Thanks for this. I’ll follow the links to the conferences you’ve mentioned. The most solid, sensible, and locally appropriate ideas are like trees — they endure over time and people gather around them.
I'm hoping someone can suggest where to find out more, but I've found Jason Hickel to be one of the more accessible writers on this, see Less is more. He says: "In an actual degrowth scenario, the goal would be to scale down ecologically destructive and socially less necessary production (what some might call the exchange-value part of the economy), while protecting and indeed even enhancing parts of the economy that are organized around human well-being and ecological regeneration (the use-value part of the economy). " https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/less-is-more-9781786091215
Macro-economics is the issue. Retail bank credit created money is a growth-or-collapse mechanism, and growth is intrinsically linked to growth in energy use. Decoupling is a fantasy.
Only Central-Bank created money is compatible with managed degrowth, because Central Bank and Treasury acting together t can tax and destroy money at the same rate as degrowth, thus stabilising the economy.
Central Government planning is hated by the freedom-and-rights people, which unfortunately is where a lot of the peak-oil, permaculture etc people have ended up- they've been politically co-opted by environmental wreckers.
Modern Monetary Theory has some of the right ideas, but their emphasis is on Central Banks creating more money to create full employment and high economic activity, which is the opposite of what's needed.
I could go on-and-on, but I didn't come here to hi-jack your post. Good luck with your Substack. Regards,
Thanks for this. I’ll follow the links to the conferences you’ve mentioned. The most solid, sensible, and locally appropriate ideas are like trees — they endure over time and people gather around them.
Anyone talking about degrowth-compatible economics?
I'm hoping someone can suggest where to find out more, but I've found Jason Hickel to be one of the more accessible writers on this, see Less is more. He says: "In an actual degrowth scenario, the goal would be to scale down ecologically destructive and socially less necessary production (what some might call the exchange-value part of the economy), while protecting and indeed even enhancing parts of the economy that are organized around human well-being and ecological regeneration (the use-value part of the economy). " https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/less-is-more-9781786091215
Macro-economics is the issue. Retail bank credit created money is a growth-or-collapse mechanism, and growth is intrinsically linked to growth in energy use. Decoupling is a fantasy.
Only Central-Bank created money is compatible with managed degrowth, because Central Bank and Treasury acting together t can tax and destroy money at the same rate as degrowth, thus stabilising the economy.
Central Government planning is hated by the freedom-and-rights people, which unfortunately is where a lot of the peak-oil, permaculture etc people have ended up- they've been politically co-opted by environmental wreckers.
Modern Monetary Theory has some of the right ideas, but their emphasis is on Central Banks creating more money to create full employment and high economic activity, which is the opposite of what's needed.
I could go on-and-on, but I didn't come here to hi-jack your post. Good luck with your Substack. Regards,