Degrowth is wrong and unapplicable due to minsinterps in econ theory (wip)

We should all welcome opportunities to use less resources to satisfy more human needs. However, this cannot be accomplished through economic commands, especially not those that are associated with the ‘degrowth’ theory. The reason is found in three analytical errors that this theory is guilty of:

It says that we cannot have a growing economy without exploitatively consuming more and more natural resources;

It assumes that GDP growth is a linear process; and

It thinks we can satisfy more human needs with less economic resources.

Let us start with the last error. Implicit in the idea of a policy to “focus economic activity around securing human needs” is the premise that not all human needs are being met today, but that they can be met by government. This in turn suggests a desire to redistribute economic resources so as to reduce differences in the standard of living. In short: fight income inequality.

Regardless of the moral status of such a project, the economic thinking behind it is entirely wrong. The only way we could concentrate our economic policy on “securing human needs” instead of growing the economy is if we agree to provide for fewer human needs than we provide for today. 

Degrowth advocates do not understand this, simply because they do not understand the concept of the gross domestic product, GDP. It is nothing more complicated than the sum total of all economic transactions that take place in a country, in a given period of time (normally a year). We measure these activities in three different ways: in terms of how economic resources are used; in terms of what is being produced; and in terms of what incomes these activities generate.