It’s Getting to Look a Lot like Degrowth: Part 1
Why isn’t capitalism saving us?
This is the first post of a three part series on the existential problem of degrowth in a world that still believes in perpetual economic growth. This post looks at why the capitalist model of perpetual growth is unable to accept the concept of degrowth. Part 2 discusses why degrowth is inevitable, but unlikely to be adopted voluntarily due to the many forces arrayed against it, not least of which is humanity’s innate resistance to change. Part 3 considers how involuntary degrowth might unfold over the rest of this century, and what kind of civilization it is likely to leave us with once fossil fuels are gone.
An analogy: ants on a log
Imagine a colony of ants living in a tree branch. Imagine the branch breaks off and falls into the river flowing beneath it. It takes the ants awhile to realize their branch is now a log floating down the river, but when they do, they start making plans to save themselves.
“Head for the left bank!” shouts one. “No, head for the right bank!” shouts another. But then a Scientist Ant points out that they aren’t really in control of the log’s path, it’s the river’s current that’s determining where the log goes. And scientific measurements are confirming something else: the current is…
