Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

Product Information

I'm recommending this book to everyone with the condition that if you are already in a sad/bad place regarding climate change, just read chapters 5 and 6. The first part of this book is absolutely brutal, and I had to take a lot of breaks and literally walk away from it. However, the first part is excellent at illustrating exactly how destructive capitalism and its mandate of constant, exponential growth has been for our world, and I do hope that everyone can read it and understand fully how we ended up where we are.

But, this uncompromising and urgent approach is wholly warranted giving the scale of the challenge, to counter a narrative that perpetual growth is good. An idea which is so deeply ingrained in society few of us ever question it (even though, as we learn, this idea is based on questionable evidence).Our planet is in trouble. But how can we reverse the current crisis and create a sustainable future? The answer is: DEGROWTH.

For years, I (and many others, I suspect) have been reacting to this tug the same way: Saying Yeah, something is wrong here and then continuing to go about my day. I can't do that anymore. I can't. The way that everyone interacts with the world is a product of a system that is fundamentally flawed. A system that has taught us to assign value to a thing not based on utility, but based on how hard it is to get, on scarcity, on how it makes people look at us, on how much we can get for it when we sell it. Capitalism. Alston, P (2020) ‘The Parlous State of Poverty Eradication: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights’, 2 July, available: https://chrgj.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Alston-Poverty-Report-FINAL.pdf (accessed 7 September 2020). Excess consumption in current times, in high income nations is sustained by ongoing process of net appropriation from the lands and peoples of global south! a) The Enclosures: The elite enclosed the commons, a violent process known as the Enclosures. The Enclosures destroyed self-sufficient economies, which created a mass supply of workers and a mass supply of consumers. a b One Hundred and Eighty-Third Final Exercises (PDF). University of Virginia. 20 May 2012. p.24 . Retrieved 12 February 2021.In the final chapter he revisits some of the philosophical and ideological issues discussed in the first two chapters, and suggests the idea of a new social and economic paradigm based on the idea that “everything is connected,” learning from primitive tribes and from animistic religions. He is known for his books The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (2017) and Less Is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (2020).A critic of capitalism, he argues that degrowth is the solution to human impact on the environment. We need a political/economic ideology other than conventional capitalism or communism. Some sort of semi-utopian social democratic, socratic society deeply embedded in a rich, natural ecology where people work less and consume less materially. It's a wonderful vision from my point of view--but how in the world do we get there in a world of Putin and Xi and many wannabe little Putin's and Xi's? We would need a much better educated and morally informed world population. Also, an effective international peace officer--an idealized and actually effectual UN for example. Hope is a slender reed--but its better than nothing. Once hit by a limit, over decades or even centuries, Capital found ways (often violent) to find newer pastures. That is where author brings in last 900 years of global domination of western powers into the perspective and starts stitching current story of environmental deterioration due to over exploitation of resources with a pure profit motive. The world has finally awoken to the reality of climate breakdown and ecological collapse. Now we must face up to its primary cause: capitalism. Our economic system is based on perpetual expansion, which is devastating the living world. There is only one solution that will lead to meaningful and immediate change: degrowth.

Jason explains in great detail the origin of my feeling and that the feeling is right on. He describes the history of capitalism and how it got us to where we are with many advances in technology but with a very dark side. And in the second half of the book, he covers what we can do about it, but it requires a radical shift to a new paradigm of how we view the world and our place in it. Capital as in Capitalism needs expansion (3% annual GDP growth at a minimum at a global level) at and hence starts exploiting resources (natural, land and people) until it hits a limit. Marx’s M-C-M’ (Money invested into Commodity production for the goal of more Money) representing capitalist production's logic in contrast to pre-capitalist market exchange C-M-C (Commodity exchanged via Money for another Commodity). Thus, the capitalist logic is fundamentally about growing money. Jason's research focuses on global political economy, inequality, and ecological economics, which are the subjects of his two most recent books: The Divide: A Brief Guide to Global Inequality and its Solutions (Penguin, 2017), and Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World (Penguin, 2020), which was listed by the Financial Times and New Scientist as a book of the year. Al jaren worstel ik met wat ik als de grootste paradox van onze tijd beschouw: we moeten als brave burgers zo veel mogelijk consumeren, en dit om ervoor te zorgen dat iedereen aan zijn basisbehoeften kan voldoen. Hoe meer er geconsumeerd wordt - of we het nu nodig hebben of niet - hoe beter, en als we te weinig consumeren, komen grote groepen mensen in de miserie terecht omdat ze de eindjes niet meer aan elkaar kunnen knopen. Waarom? Omdat het de economie is, natuurlijk. Hoezo, dingen hergebruiken en zuinig omspringen met middelen? Dat is slecht voor de economie!

The philosophical backdrop

The books biggest weakness for me is that it reminds me of the "hippie dippyism" of the late '60's and early 70's. I knew some lovely people that fit in that category at the time, but their ability to effect any real social change was very small. I feel quite conflicted about this book. On one hand, I believe everyone should read this book. However, I was a bit disappointed. It is perhaps well enough that the people of the nation do not know or understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” -Henry Ford