this post was submitted on 01 Sep 2023
710 points (97.8% liked)

Simple Living

656 readers
1 users here now

Live better, with less

Ideas and inspiration for living more simply. A place to share tips on living with less stuff, work, speed, or stress in return for gaining more freedom, time, self-reliance, and joy.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] NocturnalMorning 82 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's not that radical, we lived with less than this for tens of thousands of years before the industrial revolution.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This sounds nice for someone in a developed country who has all they need, and is only satisfying their wants. But for most of the world, economic development is a necessity and a lifesaver. Child mortality is reduced, life expectancy and education level increased, child labor decreased, as a country's economy grows. This is not a fringe right-wing idea. This is the very real effect of economic growth in developing countries, i.e. most of the world.

Degrowthers often seem to forget that applying their ideas will literally kill millions in developing countries, by preventing the economic developments that would have saved them.

FWIW, I am not a fan of unbridled capitalism either but think that it is important to consider science in important matters like this and not just go with gut feeling. That applies to both fascism and degrowth.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think a more fair take is that we need growth in underdeveloped places and degrowth in highly developed places. It's less about changing the total economic output and more about changing how that output is distributed.

[–] NocturnalMorning 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, it's about how much carbon we are putting I to the atmosphere. Pretty simple issue actually.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Which is a direct function of development. All of Africa produces less CO2 than Alabama, and Alabama is the least developed state in the developed world.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Degrowth addresses that, contrary to your opinion. Degrowth in the global north provides the space for the global south to properly develop, something that has been systematically denied to them in many places by western powers through unequal exchange and neocolonialism.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

It seems like the choice is to die from the environmental issues or die from poor health care? There is no way anyone survives with the current state of things.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Its often includes with a more holistic approach to restructuring society. Degrowth is only a part of the puzzle a lot of radicals are advocating for in order to combat climate change. A lot of proponents of degrowth also call for a solarpunk style of city planning, decentralized/libertarian (real libertarian) politics and plenty more