• intensely_human
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    9 months ago

    Okay let’s break it down.

    De- means the opposite of. Growth is when things get bigger. De-growth means shrinking human resource usage.

    How can we shrink human resource usage? Two ways:

    1. Shrink the human population. ie genocide.
    2. Shrink the resource usage per person. ie privation.

    Address the question. How is “degrowth” not a dog whistle for either killing hundreds of millions of people, or forcing hundreds of millions of people to live in poverty?

    • sudneo@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Not OP but:

      • population control (is hard but) can be done in a way that in 20-30 years starts having effect. Genocide is not the only way to reduce population?
      • reducing the consumption of individuals does not amount necessarily to starvation and poverty either. Right now we produce too much and too poorly. Reducing consumption might mean less conspicuous consumption from the top 50% of the population but also less “things” that last more.

      In both these examples unfortunately the main obstacle is economic.