The degrowth agenda is profoundly anti-human

Not familiar with the degrowth agenda? The time to change that is now.

If the degrowth agenda succeeds, this view will become obsolete.

Over the last several months, a term has emerged that puts into the perspective the destructive policies governments in the West have been embracing. That term is ‘degrowth.’

Under the guise of solving global environmental and economic challenges, advocates for degrowth are arguing that we need to reduce economic production and consumption to achieve ‘sustainability,’ ‘equity,’ and ‘justice’. And, as with any good central planning system, those powerful elites advocating for degrowth see the deliberate destruction of economic output and consumption levels as the way to achieve a climate utopia, to the detriment of just about everything else that we, as a species, have achieved in the last 10,000 or so years.

The most common definition of degrowth comes from Jason Hickel, an economic anthropologist at University of London who wrote the 2020 book Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. He defines degrowth as:

a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the economy back into balance with the living world in a way that reduces inequality and improves human well-being.

Seems innocuous. Even benevolent. But Hickel’s broad definition comes into a sharper, Malthusian focus as one reads on. More on that later.

Degrowth, Hickel says, is about scaling down “ecologically destructive and socially less necessary production” in favor of “expanding socially important sectors.” Those socially important activities include healthcare, education, care, and conviviality (whatever that is). These would be prioritized over such destructive activities as “the production of SUVs, arms, beef, private transportation, advertising, and planned obsolescence.”

Get it?

Forget about burgers and milkshakes. Mother Earth demands it.

Of course, that’s just his take on it. Defining “less necessary production” by another power-hungry, megalomaniacal leader could literally mean killing off ‘useless eaters’ or enemies of the agenda. Just ask the Kulaks of 1920s and 1930s Soviet Russia. Maybe that’s all a bit hyperbolic, right?

Nope.

Here’s how Substacker Matt Orsagh, who writes Degrowth is the Answer, envisions the world if degrowth succeeds:

• A four-day workweek.

• Half of the cars on the road than those we have today – replaced by public transport and autonomous vehicle sharing.

• Most major cities have been remade to be more walkable, bikeable, and friendly to public transport, with an obnoxious number of parks and greenspaces available to the public.

• Universal basic income.

• Public job guarantees.

• Universal public services.

• Products that last 3 times as long as they do now due to laws against planned obsolescence.

• One-third of the world is rewilded due to much less meat consumption.

• The meat that is consumed is largely lab grown.

• Wild animals repopulate our rewilded spaces, with cattle, pigs and sheep only 10% of their current numbers.

• High speed rail replaces short haul flights.

• Power generation is 90 percent “green.”

• No power source dominates with solar, wind, hydrogen, geothermal, hydro, and other novel technologies all playing a role.

• Population growth peaked in the early 2040s – with many job guarantees focused on elder care as the world transitions from a gray one to a population that will dip under 7 billion by 2100.

• GDP is no longer the official scorecard of nations, instead human well-being metrics dominate.

Aside from the obvious depopulation bent slipped in right at the end, ask yourself: Is this a world you want to live in?

One of the main oppositions to the degrowth agenda is that it is fundamentally anti-human and rooted in Malthusian ideologies which posit that population growth will inevitably outstrip resources, leading to widespread famine and suffering unless population growth is curtailed.

Degrowth is not just a smokescreen for Malthusian depopulation but it also has deep roots in Marxist philosophy. Here’s Hickel again:

It is important to recognize that the word ‘growth’ has become a kind of propaganda term. In reality, what is going on is a process of elite accumulation, the commodification of commons, and the appropriation of human labour and natural resources – a process that is quite often colonial in character. This process, which is generally destructive to human communities and to ecology, is glossed as growth. Growth sounds natural and positive (who could possibly be against growth?) so people are easily persuaded to buy into it, and to back policies that will generate more of it, when otherwise they might not. Growth is the ideology of capitalism, in the Gramscian sense. It is the core tenet of capitalism’s cultural hegemony. The word degrowth is powerful and effective because it identifies this trick, and rejects it. Degrowth calls for the reversal of the processes that lie behind growth: it calls for disaccumulation, decommodification, and decolonization.

Dr. James Lindsay, who recently shared the pernicious agenda in a multi-hour chat on the Joe Rogan podcast, has called degrowth “Communism rebranded and newly organized for the 21st century.” (We suggest you set aside the time to listen — Lindsay has essentially decoded what we are living through, and it’s frightening.)

Degrowth overlooks the fact that human progress and well-being have historically been linked to economic growth. It is through technological advancement, innovation, and increased production that societies have lifted millions out of poverty, improved living standards, and extended life expectancy.

Degrowth, by its nature, threatens these advancements by constraining economic freedom and limiting opportunities for future generations. Modern economies have evolved to provide goods and services that enhance our well-being and allow for cultural, scientific, and artistic achievements that enrich our lives. Limiting economic growth would stifle these advancements and perpetuate global inequalities.

That doesn’t stop the United Nations from pushing for degrowth, however. Here’s an excerpt from an October 2023 UNDP blog post titled ‘Growth Without Gains’:

The early development doctrine after World War II conceived economic growth at all costs as the key to improving people’s incomes and living conditions. This notion has dominated the global development agenda since then, positioning economic growth as the ultimate yardstick of progress. UNDP’s recent Integrated SDG Insights Reports revealed that also today, most governments consider job creation and economic growth the main drivers to achieve the SDGs. However, the recent trajectories of socioeconomic progress, rather fragile in the face of severe, intertwined crises and environmental decay underscore the need for a more nuanced approach to sustainable development. Today’s challenges demand a rethinking of our approach to development. Economic growth, while essential, is not a silver bullet—at least not the traditional growth we know. To build a truly sustainable and fair world, as envisioned by the SDGs, our approach must be multifaceted, integrating economic, social protection, and environmental policies effectively.

The full picture of degrowth looks something like this chart, produced by UK FIRES, a research consortium aiming towards a rapid transition to zero emissions. (Click on the image to enlarge it and read the text of a frightening future for the UK — and by extension the West — as decided by a handful of unelected, unaccountable elites.)

A roadmap to a zero emissions future - click to enlarge.

“In addition to reducing our energy demand,” UK FIRES reports, “delivering zero emissions with today’s technologies requires the phasing out of flying, shipping, lamb and beef, blast-furnace steel and cement.”

If you think degrowth is an improbable, largely academic agenda, think again. It is hitting mainstream headlines with growing regularity:

• A Japanese philosopher named Kohei Saito wrote a degrowth manifesto in January called ‘Slow Down,’ and the book has been widely covered in the media.

• The New York Times featured Saito’s book in a recent review that explored the degrowth movement .

• As we noted in our latest weekend roundup, the Harvard Business Review published an article last week — ‘In Defense of Degrowth’ — written by Dr. Christopher Marquis, a professor and author of a book about communism’s contributions to China’s economic success.

• Grist, a climate justice publication, recently wrote about a new graduate degree in degrowth offered by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

So get ready to hear more about degrowth and its siblings: Doughnut Economics, Beyond GDP, ecological economics, and regenerative economics. In the meantime, stock up on beef and lamb, book your family vacation before it’s too late, and collect as much tinder and firewood as possible. Your mud hut and cricket-meal fritters await you.

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