“Degrowth is an academic and social movement that critiques the focus on GDP growth as a measure of human and economic development. It advocates for shrinking economies to use fewer resources, aiming for ecological sustainability and socio-political equity. Degrowth challenges prevailing economic dynamics and social norms, promoting a transformative movement for systemic change.” (Wikipedia)
This BBC video asks these 2 pertinent questions –
1) “How do we live well on this planet without destroying it?”
2) “Can De-growth can save the world?”.
Maybe de-growth can save the world, but how do we actually go about “de-growing” our economies, since most people, most politicians, and most economists are fixated on the idea that “GROWTH” – which means producing (and thus wasting) ever more “stuff” – is the magical elixir which will improve the lives of everyone. Most people assume that MORE CONSUMPTION translates into BETTER LIVES and they cannot be blamed for thinking that because, if we look at the big picture – more and cheaper consumer goodies, more and better food, bigger and better cars, nice restaurants, more foreign travel, more luxury at every level – it does seem to have worked its magic over the past 80 years or so, hasn’t it?
The Oasis-City concept is the catalyst which will turn that dilemma on its head by creating an environment wherein we can live better, healthier, and more rewarding lives whilst using – and wasting – much less of everything.
Oasis-Cities will eliminate the need for all but a small handful of rental club cars, along with a multitude of motor vehicle appendages – road building and maintenance and endless “improvement schemes”, service stations, parking garages, car sales yards, crash recovery, panel beating shops, tyre shops, scrap yards, the tentacles are endless. Then think about all the jobs that would become redundant, not least the police force perhaps 50% of whose time and energy (another stab in the dark guess) revolves around policing roads and driving..! That, at a stroke – and by a very rough guess – would probably slim down the size of our bloated “economies” by 15-20%, if not quite a bit more..! Just think how much of most peoples lives revolves around cars and personal transportation in general.
The dilemma facing us is “would reducing the size of our economy by 15-20% also make us 15-20% poorer”?
Possibly yes in conventional wasteful sprawl environments, but not for those fortunate enough to live in an Oasis-City..!
The elimination of privately-owned cars are but one of many ways whereby OA-Cities can dramatically slim down the size of our over-vaunted so-called “economies”.
