A guest blog by Ci Davis
At this year’s Festival of Debate, there are two headline speakers who need to be heard: Kate Raworth, author of Donut Economics (25/04/2025), and Jason Hickel author of Less is More (29/04/2025). They are passionate advocates for the type of economics that can produce good living standards for every person in the world, including ALL of us living here in Sheffield, while reducing ecological footprints, equitably and democratically, to prevent the worst effects of the climate and ecological crisis being experienced.
Their visions are not utopian, although you might think so in the current economic circumstances, where we are told that money needs to be withheld from the poorest and most vulnerable in our community in order to provide the ‘fertile soil’ for economic growth. You might think that we need to abandon Net Zero ambitions, or environmental regulations, or accept austerity in order for growth to occur. This is not true.
The question which should be asked is – why are these sacrifices required? The answer that most of our politicians will give is that growth creates jobs, and jobs provide people with the things that we need, and when needs are met, people and society become happier. Growth is sold as ‘the rising tide that lifts all boats’. But look below the surface of this ‘commonsense’ story that mainstream economics tells us, and things don’t add up. We see the luxury yachts afloat, but what about the canoes and dinghies?
Of course, we need jobs, but as many people know all too well, even with a good job, we are not protected from the impact of decades of low growth, stagnant wages, increasing national and personal debt, the globalisation of manufacture, and staggering levels of wealth inequality. As the success of Gary Stephenson’s book, The Trading Game, shows, many people are aware that the transfer of wealth from the poor to the already very rich is creating widespread poverty and threatening the life-expectations of young people. Oxfam calculated the wealth of UK billionaires to have increased by £182bn just last year. The adage that, most people are closer to being homeless than a millionaire, is truer than it has ever been, and that should worry us.
If growth is supposed to solve poverty, then the evidence the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have just released, showing 22% of British families and 30% of children are living in poverty, surely challenges that. At a global scale the majority of the world’s population live in poverty, 66% live with less than £7.75 daily, and 10% less than £1.50 daily; this is utterly unnecessary, and with a different economic and political approach could be changed very quickly.
Mainstream economics, with its emphasis on growth, has not addressed social inequality, nor has it addressed the environmental damage whose consequences are felt globally, and which are getting worse; climate change is just one of the six planetary boundaries that have been passed. Indeed, until there is recognition that infinite growth on a finite planet is a pipe dream, it will not be possible to prevent devastating destruction of the planet, our life-support system. As the growth-logic simply ignores energy and material input costs, over-use and extraction, and output costs in the form of pollution and waste, it pretends that it can continue forever, and our governments and most councillors have completely bought into this fantasy mindset.
Jason Hickel, a world-renowned political economist, has modelled the global economy extensively, and he points directly at the causes of wealth inequality and the associated environmental costs. But his work is not only a critique of the current system, but he also points to a vision of a very survivable future, where needs are met in the form of a job guarantees, a basic income, universal services (health, education, public transport, libraries), insulated and heated homes for all, and so much more. The challenge of Net Zero is eliminated as these things can be provided using 30% of the current energy and resource use.
Can this be achieved? This has been modelled, and the answer is yes: “The weight of evidence is clear that we do not need more growth in order to achieve our social goals”. A society based on production to meet needs, and not merely for profit, means less of the stuff that is damaging to us and the planet; SUVs, fast-fashion, and weapons instead of the things we need to thrive. It will mean less work and more free time to pursue meaningful activity. The provision for need, because we democratically agree to distribute wealth equitably, is the antidote to high rents, mortgages and credit-card debt, which makes it difficult to get to the end-of-the-month now.
Jason will present a compelling case for a degrowth future that can question the Council’s 10-Year Growth Plan. Our councillors should engage with this, and we should not fear it; it is not recession but a planned transformation of a failing economy. These two inspirational speakers will provide much-needed hope that rejects the inevitability that our living standards and planetary health must continue to decline.
Tickets for Degrowth – A 21st Century Revolution are available from https://festivalofdebate.com
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Very, very crucial article and you express it all so well Ci. Thank you.
And these have been core Green Party perspectives and principles for many decades, but mayb we have stopped expressing them so well.
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