Degrowth: a new logic for the global economy
Increasing production does not necessarily translate to better social outcomes We face a bleak reality. We are in the middle of a mass extinction event driven by human economic activity crossing multiple planetary boundaries.1 Yet it remains business as usual for large transnational corporations engaged in record profiteering,2 especially fossil fuel producers. This dynamic is clear in healthcare as well. Many lives could have been saved during the pandemic if vaccine access had not been locked behind intellectual property rights to protect profits for large pharmaceutical companies.34 Our current economic system is clearly willing to sabotage planetary and human health in pursuit of profit, capital accumulation, and economic growth5—as measured by gross domestic product (GDP). Growth in GDP (ie, increased industrial production and consumption) is often incorrectly presented as a proxy for progress, but it represents simply aggregate production. By this metric, producing €1m of bombs i
