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Replacing the growth paradigm with a democratic alternative is essential in stopping expansionary capitalism’s environmental and human burdens. The root cause, the social behaviors are to be dealt with if the system is to be changed. The following summaries explore the environmental and social consequences of growth and potential changes needed to overcome such system failures, followed by personal reflection.
"Capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It takes necessities from the masses to give luxury to the classes." - Martin Luther King Jr.
The ecological crisis and the need to remake society by Murray Bookchin (Bookchin, 2015)
Dominating nature stems from dominating man. To stop ecological degradation and the suppressing hierarchy present within society, a democratic alternative to the nation state and market society is necessary.
Current market society is systemically and ecologically devastating. There are numerous scapegoats to blame for market failures, such as technology; however, the competitive nature of man brought social and ecological destruction long before the technological revolution. Under capitalism the market maintains a “grow or die” nature, a strong moral compass therefor restrains business from unlimited growth. Such a growth imperative is deeply rooted.
Similarly, the state becomes an entity of its own; inherently power becomes institutionalized within the state causing policies to serve specific interests. Policies may initially be well intentioned but later inherently become corrupted. The state ultimately acts as an instrument of its institutionalized leaders according to Murray Bookchin.
There is no quick fix to solving ecological crisis, however, if society remains built on growth, domination, hierarchy, and exploitation, we will definitely not win against crisis.
The end of Poverty (Diaz, 2008)
20,000 people die of hunger every day, 60-80 million people still live in slave-like conditions, almost 1/3 of the world’s population doesn’t have access to running water yet the current economic system prevails?
The colonial period has left its mark. Colonizers inflicted change on native communities, collectivistic cultures, social structures, mentalities, and their symbiotic relationships with the environment. With natural economies destroyed, natives were made dependent on colonizers. Similarly, the global North developed new markets where agriculture and industry were separated, creating a reliance on their commodities and productions which would otherwise have been produced by developing countries themselves.
The Global North obtained its wealth and power taking natural resources and cheap labor from developing countries, financing the industrial revolution; the South remains ‘undeveloped’, in a state of dependency, dependent on foreign aid from the North, exporting raw materials cheaply to import finished goods at a high price, creating an environment where violence is harvested. There are three problems experienced by the Global South namely, unfair trade, unpayable debt and monopolies over their resources. Due to high debt for example, developing countries are made to follow advice which is often not in their best interest.
Post-Growth in the Global South? Some Reflections from India and Bhutan (Gerbera & Rainab, 2018)
Post-growth is inevitable for our continuance. The post-growth paradigm rejects GDP growth and aims to enhance wellbeing and ecological health as financial prosperity does not determine wellbeing when comparing different income groups.
India in correlation to high growth rates has experienced environmental decline, declining health and a decline in well-being and unfavourable trade conditions causing unpayable debts. A democratic class-based approach is necessary between people and Degrowth should apply to the rich no matter their geographic location. Despite India’s GDP growth, the poorer half own only 4.1% of the total national wealth. Unequal distribution of wealth results from the growth paradigm and political and economic restructuring is necessary to overcome this. Fulfilling needs and basic satisfaction should be the goal rather than capital accumulation concentrated at the top. It is the Global South, the developing countries who are calling for 'a good life' post growth.
Bhutan has broken away from GDP aiming to enhance sustainability and wellbeing through their own coined Gross National Happiness index in which certain activities have been limited whilst others grown, such as free healthcare and education. Aiming for a worldwide sustainable steady-state is the goal of the post-growth paradigm.
Personal reflection
It is evident that the economy in which we operate, aiming for continuous growth is ecologically and socially devastating.
Capitalism will find conditions for exploitation to accumulate wealth. Looking at colonial history, communities were destroyed for natural resources and cheap labor, and the wealth thereof financed the industrial revolution in the global North, making this a very deeply rooted issue. This remains evident as wealth is concentrated by the richest, while exploitation and environmental degradation is largely experienced by developing and often vulnerable countries, making this a social issue causing planetary overshoot and severe human rights abuses.
At a state level, power is held by elite bodies and regardless of initial purity, overtime policies will serve the interests of a few. The growth imperative seems to whirlpool, clouding any rational or moral compass, institutionalizing actors to survive the overly competitive market. Oppression exists between countries, but also extends to oppresses within borders, communities, and institutions, causing for domination of certain groups due to a hierarchy of classes. Therefore, a democratic system for redistributing wealth is necessary, based on wealth inequality of individuals rather than geographic position of where wealth accumulates.
Degrowth rejects surplus and the fundamentals of capitalism which can be provoking as people generally cannot envision the world without growth. However, Bhutan has shown how a country can change its priorities to preserve and protect its communities and natural resources, using its own measurement of growth namely, the Gross National Happiness philosophy. Paving the way for new economic developments and shaping new social and economic structures this is reassuring as it was also seen that wellbeing and financial prosperity were similar between different income groups so why is financial prosperity still viewed as the measurement for a successful and fulfilled life in many Western economies?
We forget that the economy as is, did not just come to be. Neoclassical economics is built into the economic structures ingrained into our societies. However, just as it was built, it can be broken and restructured. Libertarians, including Anarchists, reject state power and advocate the replacing of nation states with municipal bodies to remake cities, rebuilding social order at small scales and preventing the serving of specific interests. A new social order is necessary if we are to combat crises and I believe that through degrowth and municipal governance protecting community interests on a small scale with community involvement in all decision making processes, the fundamentals of society could drastically change.
