what role does capitalism's insatiable drive to accumulate play in this? On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 6:28 PM, Eugene Coyle<[email protected]> wrote: > I've been reading books that are anti- and pro- growth in connection with > writing a review of one of them. Discussing environmental problems in terms > of growth seems to me to be close to futile. > > I believe that economic growth (however you want to measure or define it) in > the North must come to a halt. But discussing growth as a policy target is > a mistake. > > The problem: Economic growth promises jobs. Economic growth promises > higher income so as to meet our current aspirations and lets us dream of > aspirations yet to be. Economic growth promises lifting low income people > to a higher income level. Growth is very appealing. Never mind that with > relentless growth we are perenially short of jobs, always short of the > income level to cover our material aspirations, and poverty is not > eliminated. Growth remains very appealing in spite of not delivering what > we think it will. > > The books advocating slowing/stopping growth list reducing working time as > one step to take on the journey to slow/stop growth. Almost all also list > many other policy options to use. There are many people advocating > slowing/stopping growth in GDP. Some are economists, others come from > environmental and/or spiritual perspectives. Some are utopian, i.e. those > that say that corporations should decide to stop growing and/or consumers > should stop aspiring to more stuff (e.g. voluntary simplicity.) Others, > e.g. Herman Daly, work out rules and regulations on throughput into the > economy, resource extraction, ending fractional reserve banking, etc., all > of which seem difficult/impossible politically, evadable, or unworkable. > These rule-based proposals are hard to explain to the public and/or have > their own built-in opposition. > > I've concluded that cutting working time is the sine qua non to > slowing/stopping growth. All the rest is tinkering. Some may be useful > tinkering but not essential. Cutting working time is it. > > People like the idea of cutting working time. It seems like a good idea in > multiple dimensions. But frequently heard is the objection "We can't do > that." But in the USA we have done it -- repeatedly. It always turns out > well. Hours go down, incomes go up. What's not to like? And of course > other countries have and are cutting working time. > > I've concluded some things. Growth must stop, and the only way to slow/stop > growth is to cut working time, sharply and repeatedly. And I've concluded > that I should not talk about growth but only about cutting working time. > > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
-- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
