As I sit here pondering the meaning of life, or rather its egregious lack, it strikes me how we humans love to tinker. Obsessively. Compulsively. Often disastrously. Which brings me to the hair-brained idea of the century: why not just shrink the economy to save the world? Ah, sweet oblivion, could you beckon any louder?
A cluster of madcaps, presumably sucked dry of all joy by their own economic theories, have decided that growth, like my desire to leave bed on Mondays, is overrated. Remember the good old days when a downturn spelled nothing but soup lines and despair? Well, say hello to strategic poverty, folks!
Apparently, a spectral figure named Herman Daly once howled into the void about a "steady-state economy," and now a whole choir of doomsday preppers are humming along. Books with cheerful titles like Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World─which, frankly, sounds like a manual on how to gracefully dive into destitution─are the avant-garde's latest bible.
Let's not forget our dear friend, André Gorz, who first flirted with degrowth back in 1972, the same illustrious year that brought us disco and waterbeds. Fast forward, and his brainstorm is gaining traction like a death wish at a life insurance convention. Critics, aka people who enjoy things like warmth and food, argue that we might innovate our way out of looming disasters. But alas, the degrowth disciples insist that less is more, although my overdrawn bank account robustly disagrees.
Would halting progress really cushion our fall from ecological grace, or are we just looking for a more picturesque route to the grave? Well, who cares, because if we're going down, we might as well do it chuckling at our own absurdity. Besides, the upside to global ruin? Missing all those awkward family dinners because, surprise, we might just end up dying alone.
To that morbid possibility, I raise a half-empty glass. Cheers to degrowth, because if we have to exit stage left, why not do it in economically diminished style?
Based on the original article "Shrink the Economy, Save the World?".
