Post Growth = Work Less, Have More

Growth Mindset = Work More, Have Less

Photo by Rafael Cisneros Méndez on Unsplash

Sometimes lost in the discussion about degrowth is the destination of a degrowth path. The destination is an economy that prioritizes human wellbeing over economic growth (a wellbeing economy) in which our economy operates within planetary boundaries. That’s the destination, but there is a lot of noise on the way to that destination.

Degrowth friendly policies such as a four-day work week, universal basic income, universal basic services and shrinking environmentally harmful industries get a lot of attention because they are frankly shocking to many people who have never considered them. People who are new to degrowth often get stuck on many of these policies they may see as socialist, anti-capitalist and not based on the market economy they are used to.

These types of new ideas, along with the word degrowth itself often stops people in their tracks before they can either consider the destination that degrowth promises. So here it is.

Work Less, Have More.

The promise of degrowth is to work less and have more.

The promise of our current system is to work more and have less.

Which do you choose?

It is at this point that a good capitalist says, “Hold on buddy, you have more if you work more. You will have less if you work less, because the thing to have is material wealth and possessions.

But is it?

If you have more material wealth and possessions, what have you got? Studies continually show that over a certain level of income, we are no happier. But the economic systems in the West (which is where most people reading this live) value GDP growth as the only metric of success. As citizens in these Western countries we all understand that our economies need to grow a bit each year in order to avoid a recession, which is a prolonged slump in GDP.

Barring war or an invasion from aliens, we all understand that a recession is the worst thing that can happen to us or our economies. Recessions means jobs get cut, we all have less money and material stuff and people suffer. But that suffering comes because people are serving the economy, and the thing they have to have to get by is more money. The focus is not their own wellbeing. Money is not the same as wellbeing. Up to a certain point it can help with your wellbeing, but by making more money everyone’s goal (which is what chasing the GDP fix for the economy is what you get) you can never get to a point where you are secure.

If change what the definition of the thing we want to have more of, then the whole reason for our current economic model falls away. Which is fine.

The economic system most of us operate under is all about having more, and that having is more wealth and possessions, because that keeps the economy slowly growing. There is a mental toll for never being secure and never accepting happiness. That model has the nasty side effect of slowly destroying the natural world.

So the deal is that we have to strive to always have more at the expense of our physical and mental health. This is not a good deal.

More agency, not more wealth.

What if we just change the thing that we want to have more of? What if we swap out material wealth and more possessions for that physical and mental health that our current system is making more impossible to achieve. Take out the middleman of capitalism, because that system isn’t healthy.

Why don’t we adopt a way of life where we work less and have better health - a wellbeing economy? This doesn’t mean we all live in caves or some socialist dystopia, it just means that we work as much as we need to in order to provide for ourselves and our family and use that extra time to do whatever we wish. Here’s a little secret, that extra time will often be used to contribute to building a better society because as social creatures that is what we desire. If we aren’t rats in a race, we tend to build community. That’s not a bad option.

This isn’t some anti-capitalist screed. This is just realizing that the reality we are sold isn’t working, so let's stop buying it. Yes, a transition to a post-growth world won’t be easy, but the destination is a pretty sweet one.

On that path most of us will have much more agency than we have now. That can be a little scary, but unlike the current path we are on, it doesn’t have to end in self-destruction. If that increased agency you have has the safety net of community under it - then there isn’t much to worry about. Yes, life will still be hard, and bad things will still happen to people. But you won’t go bankrupt from a medical emergency, you won’t have to work two jobs to just stand still, and you won’t have to make self-destructive compromises just to tread water.

What are you climbing to reach?

They never tell you that when climbing the ladder of success, you are allowed to stop when you reach happy. You can keep climbing if you want, but in our current society, most of us don’t have that choice. We have to keep climbing, often leaving happy somewhere in our wake. We have to keep climbing just to survive. We keep climbing, and there is nothing at the top of the ladder, because the ladder goes on forever. It’s designed that way. Then you die never having reached the top.

That ladder doesn’t really go anywhere. Stop at happy. Work less, have more. As for what it is you are going to have, well, that’s up to you. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the agency to make that choice for yourself.

You can. It’s at the end of the degrowth path.