of Teacherresource
By Robert Bradley Jr.
“Degrowth is about government authoritarianism that overcomes the natural human drive to increase. Marcus Feldthus of the Copenhagen Business School needs to re-learn about goals and means to at least inform students about the happy side and life.
No growth (stagnation) is bad enough. In business, every promotion must be balanced by a demotion or retirement. For one person to buy more, another must buy less. Charity is not, the game is zero amount of prescription for low morale and infighting, just from the opposite of charity through abundance.
Take another step back to a negative sum game. There are more losers than winners. Live the fittest. Glum as a word is a rising hope replaced by despair.
Less is not more but less. Less convenience, less leisure, less security, and less philanthropy to others. And with incentives that cannot be met, the desperadoes call on the government to intervene at the expense of others. French economist and classical liberal Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) wrote in 1848:
… it is a well-established fact that the state cannot obtain satisfaction for some without increasing the labor of others…. The state is a large fictitious entity in which everyone strives to survive at the expense of everyone else.
What needs “degrowth” is the government, not the market, a subject for another time.
“Planetary Limits”
What is the latest thinking and tone of the degrowth movement? Here’s a social media post from Marcus Feldthus, whose self-described mission is to “build post-growth businesses to achieve sustainability,” providing an update. His website advertises an online course, “Aligning Business with Planetary Limits,” based on four precepts (verbatim):
- Why green growth fails to produce results quickly and adequately.
- How inequality and the ecological crisis are linked.
- The case of companies getting sustainability right and wrong.
- How to start implementing post growth thinking in business.
He encouraged students to “start a conversation about assumptions in your company.”
No growth, no growth…. Alas! Call Julian Simon!
Feldthus continued in front of the environment (reproduced verbatim):
- Assuming you can remove carbon emissions from economic growth that’s enough to comply with the Paris Agreement (no evidence of this happening)
- Assuming some new technology will magically appear and solve point 1 (technology optimism ignores expectations not strategy)
- Consider climate change the only problem (when there are 8 other planetary boundaries)
- Assuming stable prices in energy and materials (when energy expenditure increases)
- Assuming that increase in energy efficiency leads to absolute energy and material reduction in a growth-based system (the money you save, you use to develop output, to make more money, which cancels out the initial savings – also known as the Rebound Effect)
- Assuming that is possible recycling the way out of the ecological crisis (The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics explains why this is impossible)
- Assuming that services have no, or negligible, ecological footprint (services cannot replace all material sectors)
Marcus Feldthus sees hope and momentum:
Degrowth has broken into the mainstream. Covered by: UN, Harvard Business Review, NY Times, Ernst & Young, BBC, and Bloomberg Festival. As something to explore, not mock. Here are quotes from each 👇
Bloomberg Festival: Ted Talk by Gaya Herrington
“Our choice is not to continue to grow or not. But whether the end of growth comes by design or disaster. Either we choose limitations or they have been forced upon us.
Harvard Business Review: In Defense of Degrowth
“The core of the degrowth argument is the historical fact that economic growth and emissions cannot be separated (…) To be realistic about the fundamental challenges of growth, we must adjust our cultural assumptions and reorganize unsustainable business models.”
UN rapporteurOlivier De Schutter: Eradicating poverty goes beyond growth
“The transition to a post-growth development trajectory, focused on the realization of human rights rather than an increase in the level of aggregate production and consumption, should be clearly stated in A Pact for the Future”.
New York Times: Shrinking the Economy, Saving the World?
“Less than twenty years ago, economists like Herman Daly, who argued for a “steady state economy,” were more clear than his fellow economist Benjamin Friedman could say that “practically no one opposes economic growth.” But now there is a movement of “post- “growth” and “degrowth” are constantly evolving – in journals, podcasts, at conferences.
Ernst & Young: The new economy
“Apparently organized in various frameworks (for example, Donut Economy, Beyond GDP, ecological economy, degrowth and regenerative economy), these concepts show a general vision of an economy founded on human and planetary development. We suggest that they also share five principles a basic guide to speed up the transition to that goal.
BBC: More or less: Can Degrowth Save the World? by Alvaro Alvarez Ricciardelli
“Groups of academics and activists are questioning the possibility of unlimited economic growth on a finite planet. They are instead advocating a bold solution: degrowth.
And, if you want to know what this change means for your business, I just launched a beginner’s guide. This is called Post Growth Business 101. 📌 Get it here: https://lnkd.in/ePFW-j5a
A final comment
Degrowth is the last solution against modernity. It is an anti-human philosophy of stagnation and decline based on the belief that there are too many people. Remember Paul Ehrlich?
Degrowth is a fringe movement in Deep Ecology. It sanctions deindustrialization and thus welcomes high energy prices and energy rationing, even blackouts.
Degrowth is about government authoritarianism overriding the natural human drive to increase. It lurks in high places and must be exposed for what it is. Marcus Feldthus from the Copenhagen Business School needs to relearn the goals and methods to at least inform his students about the happy side of life.
related