this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2025
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Degrowth
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This is pie in the sky, at least on my reading of the evidence. I wish that were not the case.
Yes, economic growth is slowly being decoupled from energy use and resource throughputs, i.e. the things disrupting our planet. But the decoupling is relative, not absolute. The absolute indicators continue, inexorably, to go in the wrong direction. For now, and surely into the medium-term future, economic growth is simply not on a sustainable trajectory. And yet our culture remains obsessed with it, irrationally.
As for exploring the stars, well, I say we put that aside and consider it at a later date.
That's fair. The question I always have is, Why? Why is this abstract indicator so important? It's routinely invoked like some kind of religious incantation, as some kind of obvious good, when it plainly has major limitations.
Why not instead use indicators that measure the concrete things we're really aiming for? Things like education, health, food security, environmental quality, etc?
The Human Development Index, to take the obvious example, is a much more meaningful indicator than economic growth. Imagine what might happen if we could persuade ourselves to judge everything by the HDI, and if politicians competed on their success at improving the HDI. All kind of possibilities would open up.