Timothée Parrique - How to Blow Up an Economy | The Conference 2023
When everyone else calls for economic growth, innovation, and addition, Timothée Parrique demands demolition, sabotage, and removal. Our strive towards infinite growth is not sustainable on a finite planet. So far, no economy in the world has managed to grow its economy without overshooting the planetary boundaries. That’s why we need an economic strategy based on subtractions, not additions. And we need to rethink the economy's purpose, as growth tells us nothing about prosperity and well-being. So, is de-growth the solution?
Timothée advocates for a planned, selective, and temporary downscaling of production and consumption. Mainly because the alternative, growth-obsessed capitalism, is a total collapse. And if you want to lose weight, you would want to diet gradually over time rather than chop off a leg, right? Let's come in like a wrecking ball and discuss how an economy can prosper without growth - because that is the ultimate innovation.
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One of the best, most succinct descriptions I've heard of the economic bind we're in, and the way we can resolve it. Thank you Timothy.
Incredible talk, I don’t have an economics background but appreciate the concepts highlighted here
Thanks Tim I think you are on the right track. Can I recommend you add this idea in to your discussions of possible futures? Ending growth is not only good for the environment, it is fantastic for working class people. It means they all get to work less and remain just as wealthy. I see this as the easiest product to sell that a salesman could possibly hope for. Your offer is that workers get to work less, earn just as much, and we stop destroying the living planet. The price? We have to redesign our accounting system. This is how I see it working: Ending growth means we will all have much less to do. There will be zero need for any new roads, buildings, airports, schools, farms, universities etc. This abrupt end in activity will cause a collapse in demand for both energy and raw materials such as copper, tin, timber etc. This will leave us with even less to do as existing mines close and no new mines open. Within the present economic structures, this scenario would be a disaster. Unemployment would be insanely high and workers would be left in poverty. But why? We haven’t lost anything. We have just stopped building a whole bunch of stuff in order to support a growth obsessed economic system. Assuming we have ended our imperative for economic growth along side a policy that stabilises population growth, nobody has actually lost anything. Ending growth within the present system would mean a lucky few with jobs would be doing fine and the mountains of unemployed people would be destitute. Fixing this ‘problem’ is so simple its almost amusing. We shrink the working week to meet our needs. My guess is we would land on a 2-3 day working week. Lovely. So in summary: Stop growth, reduce the working week, carry on maintaining what we already have. And the byproduct is that we stop this relentless war on the environment that our present growth obsessed monster economic system is comfortably winning.