Today's post is by Elliot Hurst
If we want a prosperous future for all those who call Aotearoa home, we need a society which functions without economic growth. A ‘degrowth movement’ has been building in Europe over the past decade, with a network of academics and activists making the case for economic transformation. So what is degrowth? And what is the relevance for Aotearoa and our political parties?
Degrowth is a call to decolonise our
imaginations from the ideology of endless economic growth.
Degrowth challenges the notion that growth
is necessary to ensure a good standard of living. On a real per capita basis,
the New Zealand economy is 60% larger than it was 25 years ago in 1992. How
much bigger will it need to be to provide those sleeping in their cars with
adequate housing? Or to have enough money available to make our polluted
rivers, lakes, and harbours thrive again?
The degrowth movement recognises that infinite
economic growth is socially and ecologically unsustainable. Politicians
may speak of green growth, techno-fixes, and the decoupling of
economic growth from environmental destruction, but the reality is that our
gobbling of resources has only continued to increase. Much of the
impact of our lifestyles isn’t visible to us here; it is found in these drowning islands, burning rainforests, or unbreathable air. While some relative decoupling of resource use from
economic growth may be possible, adequately address climate change while
continuing economic growth is simply infeasible.
Our politics and policies need to set a new
course towards ensuring a good life for all. From our current situation, this
will require a reduction in economic
production and consumption. A deliberate and democratic shrinking of our
economy is not a vision of austerity;
it requires new policies and ideas to guide a fair downscaling. This is the
heart of the degrowth vision. The Research & Degrowth group in Barcelona has
been developing degrowth proposals for new left parties in Greece and Spain,
and it is not just wishful thinking – it is being discussed as a legitimate
topic overseas. The rest of the article will explore degrowth policies for
Aotearoa using those proposals as a starting point. Rather than evaluating a
single policy, this post aims to describe how adopting a degrowth philosophy
would create significant changes across a range of economic policy areas.
Government’s
role in the economy
From promoting primary sector growth to expanding non-market spheres
From promoting primary sector growth to expanding non-market spheres
Labour’s Future of Work commission points
out that ‘if unpaid care was made a paid
part of the economy, it ...could add as much as $23.3 billion or 10.8% [to our
GDP]’. It is not clear what definition of “care work” they are using, but
this seems like a serious underestimate. Just consider the consequences if all
unpaid emotional support, cooking, free taxi services, and cleaning were to
stop for a week. The way that ‘productive’ activities depend on unpaid care work is a key insight of the discipline of
feminist economics. The conclusion is that we need a richer understanding of
‘the economy’, one that includes all of the work that is done to keep society
running. The for-profit, market economy is just one of many diverse spheres of
economic activity. Once we understand the diversity of work, we should find
ways to support alternative methods of production and consumption. Policy-wise,
support for alternative spheres of economic activity, including not-for-profit
cooperatives or commons initiatives need
to take priority over subsidising irrigation schemes or boat races.
A related point is relatively
uncontroversial - stop supporting the fossil economy. The East-West link, spending billions to make
the trucking of goods marginally faster is an obvious contender. And why are we
still subsiding oil exploration?
Investments in public transport, adequate housing, and cycle lanes allow people
to live well while consuming less.
Economic
Measurement
From
GDP to sustainability indicators
For degrowth,
it is the reduction of material and energy consumption that is key, rather than
a lower GDP. So one of the most obvious degrowth policies is just to stop
measuring GDP, and shift to an alternative range of indicators that better
capture what we actually care about; for example, our ecological footprint, the
number of children living in poverty, or
the percentage of native species at risk of extinction. While not
transformative in itself, this policy is a signal and spur for a change in
political discourse. We currently attach an
excessive importance to the government’s ability to increase one magic
number, yet it seems to be a poor proxy for whether things are actually better
for people. On this front, the Green’s Public
Finance (Sustainable Development Indicators) Amendment Bill is a
step in the right direction, compelling government reporting to include a range
of sustainability indicators.
Employment
Good
work for all with a fair share
One of the tricky issues to deal with as
the economy shrinks is how to provide decent employment to anyone who wants it.
As it stands, 128,000 people in NZ are
unemployed, while many more are underemployed or stuck in insecure work. Traditionally,
growth is the magic bullet for job creation, but more creative methods are
needed in a degrowth economy. One simple proposal is to reduce working hours; work
is shared more evenly, and people have more time to spend with whānau. Aotearoa
led the world with a 40-hour working
week, but currently, various trials of a 6-hour working
day are being conducted in Sweden, and the New Economics Foundation
(NEF) in the UK has made the case for reducing
the standard working week to 21 hours. These reductions would both
provide the opportunity for more people to work, and give people more leisure
time. Of course, this move needs to be linked to a living wage and a universal
basic income if possible. Extra time away from work can also be a boost to
community participation, volunteering, and care work.
Debt
Audit
Cutting
the ties to growth
One reason our economic system requires
growth is to pay off loans with interest; this is one of the most thorny
challenges of moving away from growth. To address this, degrowth scholars
propose a citizen debt audit, a democratic process to
restructure or eliminate household and government debt. Restructuring would mean
reducing the amount of debt that must be repaid. For public debt, there are precedents including the Millennium
Jubilee campaign of wiping debt in the Global South, when paying this debt was preventing
government spending in health or education. The heart of this process is an
ideological shift away from insisting that all debt must be honoured. Instead, the
debt audit reaffirms the sovereignty of democratic institutions over the
financial system. It’s also about facing up to the simple reality that without
growth, some debts can’t be repaid. This is somewhat outside of current
government policy (or the Budget Responsibility Rules), and unlikely to be
popular with our Australian banks. At a local level, bankruptcy exists
precisely because we recognise that in certain circumstances it is unreasonable
to insist upon paying off debts in full.
Taxes
Taxing
the ‘bads’
Governments have the power to guide the economy through taxation.
Taxing consumption and pollution is an important reorientation. This would
include a tax on carbon and charging for
other resources including water. In addition, higher tax rates for high incomes
or taxes on wealth would provide the resources necessary for a universal basic
income or guaranteed minimum income. These policies could be an important
safety net in a changing economy. Without the panacea of economic growth, a
more serious conversation about inequality and the distribution of wealth is
needed. We have to share the pie better rather than just trying to make it
bigger.
All degrowth policies are built on a deeper
ideological shift in how we understand the economy, community, and a good life.
Diverging visions of the economy are already found in the political messaging
used by the parties. A strong, growing
economy, with a government that ‘continue[s] to drive economic growth’ is
the National message. NZ First sets out the policies necessary ‘if the New Zealand economy is to grow
sustainably over time’. Meanwhile, Labour also seeks a stronger economy, and will ‘boost
growth and jobs through our Regional Development Fund’. It is interesting
to note that the Green party judges policy success by ‘improvements in the economy’, and envisages a ‘clean’ ‘carbon-neutral economy’ as the target - aligning with the
Green party charter which states
‘unlimited material growth is impossible’.
What does a degrowth future mean at an
individual level? It’s difficult to sketch out precisely - our lifestyles
depend on many cultural factors beyond economics, and it also depends on where
you stand in today’s society. Degrowth is built on the conviction that a good
quality of life is possible for all, even with reduced economic consumption.
For kiwis living in poverty, struggling to even get adequate nutrition,
degrowth must be a life of greater prosperity and wellbeing. Meanwhile, for
those in a more comfortable position, the biggest changes may be reduced hours
of work, or shifts to different ways of working. It's also likely to include a
reduced ability to buy the latest gadgets, and fewer overseas trips.
Ultimately, degrowth does not dictate how to live. It is up to everyone to
build the kind of lifestyles they want, within ecological limits. Continued
economic growth is a more severe restriction on freedom than degrowth would be
- except for a privileged few.
Degrowth is described as a ‘missile word’. It opens space for a radical
understanding of economics and politics. The policies explored here are an
incomplete vision for a thriving Aotearoa - so much depends on the values that
we choose to live by. Max Harris’ promotion of values of care,
creativity and community is probably a step in the right direction. For the
more radical degrowth proposals, more
work is needed before they become politically viable, but this can be done in
many ways: from discussing degrowth to supporting local projects meeting needs
outside of the for-profit sector, whether this is urban gardening, bicycle
cooperatives, or community childcare centres. With ever more people questioning
the ability of today’s economy to provide good livelihoods, housing, and a
stable climate, degrowth ideas must be brought into the debate.
For
more reading on degrowth - Prosperity
without Growth (Tim
Jackson) and In Defense of
Degrowth (Giorgos Kallis)
are good starting points.
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