I found an article that’s a very helpful addition to my “verbal toolkit” for explaining degrowth. Also just hearing degrowth talked about in mainstreamland is a great morale-booster. Hope you will find it helpful as well. It’s a New York Times article by David Marchese, “This Pioneering Economist Says Our Obsession with Growth Must End.”
I particularly like the helicopter analogy, and (as a permaculture designer) also applaud Daly’s reference to design of an economy.
“Our obsession with economic growth
“Growth is the be-all and end-all of mainstream economic and political thinking. But what about the possibility that our current pursuit of growth, rabid as it is and causing such great ecological harm, might be incurring more costs than gains? That possibility, that prioritizing growth is ultimately a losing game, is one that the lauded economist Herman Daly has been exploring for more than 50 years. He spoke with our colleagues at The New York Times Magazine …
“The failure of a growth economy to grow is a disaster. The success of a steady-state economy not to grow is not a disaster. It’s like the difference between an airplane and a helicopter. An airplane is designed for forward motion. If an airplane has to stand still, it’ll crash. A helicopter is designed to stand still, like a hummingbird. So it’s a comparison between two different designs, and the failure of one does not imply the failure or success of the other. But in order to move from our present growth economy to a steady-state economy, that’s going to imply some important design principles — some changes in the fundamental design.”
#Degrowth #HermanDaly