With degrowth, will we all end up unemployed or poor? Would the decrease inevitably plunge France into a terrible recession? Shouldn’t we be focusing on green growth instead?
The researcher and essayist Vincent Liegey, professional engineer, has just released the book Decrease, in which he tries to demystify this concept which is very widely debated. Against a “sustained recession” or a growth society without growth, he pleads for a “chosen decrease”, to free himself from the current model which he considers obsolete and harmful for the planet. In his quest, he agreed to take a detour by 20 minutes for “Debunker”, facing the camera, some preconceived ideas on the subject.
Make sense through degrowth?
“With growth, we calculate a bit of everything and anything.” Vincent Liegey does not budge. If the ecosystems of planet Earth today are in poor health, it is largely due to the capitalist measurement system based on growth, and therefore GDP, “which does not take into account their destruction and that of biodiversity, among others, ”he insists. The most important, according to him? “In the end, we have to ask ourselves the question of what really makes sense”.
“Décroissance” by Vincent Liegey, Ed. Tana, “Fake or not” collection, in bookstores since September 9th.