Canada Needs a Degrowth Green New Deal
When I hear phrases like “degrowth is just not politically or economically feasible” (1) I suspect a combination of the following: ignorance about degrowth, malicious intent, selfish protection of privileges, lack of empathy, elitist arrogance, or just flawed analysis.
It doesn’t take much effort to recognize that green growth and ecomodernism are utter delusions. See some debates here: 1, 2, 3, and a funny sketch. They claim we can innovate our way out of the climate crises, social crises, political crises. Over and over again it has been proven that disconnecting economic growth from ecological damage cannot happen fast enough in absolute terms (1). Considering that we have breached six of the nine planetary boundaries, we do not have time to fool around, as a society, if we want to avoid collapse of economies and large-scale tragic social unrest.
Why do some Canadians dismiss degrowth?
Since the 2012 Montreal Conference, degrowth has not seen much advance in the public opinion unlike in Europe that gave birth to the concept. Is it because Canadians are so in love with their oversized houses, cottages, SUVs, lawn mowers, golf courses, spending sprees, stock portfolios, the 200k+ salary plus bonuses? Is it because Canadians are afraid not to upset the Americans? Is it because the Atlas Network has utter domination over public narratives? Is it the deeply ingrained fetish with meritocracy?
The honest answer is… we don’t know. We should not assume to know what all Canadians think about degrowth, about their ideal lifestyle, about how to increase wellbeing for everyone, about how to stop environmental destruction, about how to phase out capitalism.
Professor Richard Sandbrook writes: “we must rapidly make a green energy transition. This transition cannot happen unless people, including those employed in fossil fuel industries, see a better future at the end.” (1) Correct! That is what degrowth can do for everyone, including fossil fuel workers. One should not dismiss the word degrowth itself simply because of perceptions about how the syllable “de” rings in the ears of the growth-obsessed elites.
How about we unpack what degrowth actually proposes? A review of degrowth policy proposals found 530 different proposals, split into 13 policy themes. The most interesting proposals actually aim to dismantle capitalism, by dealing with fundamental constructions: the definition of property, the need for rationing and material caps on production and consumption, the fair and just amount of minimum and maximum wealth, the inequality of the ecological footprint of individuals and nations, the introduction of economic democracy which is absent under capitalism, the massive expansion of human rights from housing to universal basic services. Who can say no to this?!
This year, in an informal setting organized by Justice4Workers, I asked about three dozen Canadians, middle class and working class, what they thought about: (1) making housing a human right, namely nationalizing the for-profit housing, which would literally phase out price-gouging landlords, and then making residents equal owners in housing coops, all this to solve the housing crisis without relying only on market solutions, and (2) having a maximum wealth limit of ten million dollars. The answers I received? Unanimous support for both policy proposals, which by the way, are advanced by degrowth scholars and activists. Earlier this year, in a debate at University of Toronto where I defended degrowth against green growth, a whopping 80% of audience members (roughly 50 people) supported degrowth. Does this not make degrowth very politically acceptable? Can we remember how politically acceptable was the abolition of slavery, universal suffrage, the weekend, the 8-hour workday, paid vacation, paid family leave, civil rights, marriage equality?
Richard Sandbrook writes: “A green new deal could be more effective at delivering positive ecological change than green growth and would likely be more feasible in the short-term than a degrowth model.” Okay, we know that green growth is rubbish. When we talk about a green new deal, what are we actually talking about? What are the policies proposed under a so-called capitalist-friendly green new deal?
The heart of the matter
Some folks believe that degrowth is desirable but improbable, and we can have a radical green new deal and get to keep capitalism, at the same time. Ah, have your cake and eat it too? We have heard about this before.
Hold on, but what do we mean by capitalism? Is it about free markets, free enterprise, private ownership of the means of production? What is at stake here, that we are so afraid of demonizing capitalism for all its crimes? What are the quiet parts not said out loud?
The heart of the matter is the elitist, inhumane, exploitative, unjust, unfair, unstable, amoral, immoral, sociopathic, hubristic, exclusive, egregious, effluent design of capitalism. The link between property (equity shares) and power (ability to dictate decisions) in corporations is proportional, therefore profoundly anti-democratic. You have one share, you have one vote. Employees who do not own shares have no voice in how the company is ought to be run, how much to produce, what to produce, how to set the prices, who gets paid and how much, who gets to be a boss, how profits are shared. This doctrine of proportionality must be phase out and replaced with a doctrine along the lines of power by equal sentience. That is if we want to progress as a civilization.
How on Earth can we keep growing the material economy and satisfy the design of capitalism? If we agree that we cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet, and that capitalism cannot exist without the profit incentive (aka growth), should we then not bite the bullet, be honest, and say that capitalism must be phased out using degrowth policies, so we can phase in a new economic system that provides wellbeing for everyone?
What would a degrowth green new deal look like for Canada
Of course, degrowth advocates for the phasing out of capitalism. No doubt about that. Degrowth aims at the heart of capitalism, its undemocratic structures. There is nothing special about Canada, in terms of how asset managers, investment bankers, stock brokers, venture capitalists conduct their affairs. What is specific about Canada is an innate cultural deference to the United States, a superficial mentality of cultural-geographical isolationism from the rest of the world which comes with the arrogance that fossil fuels can be extracted in Alberta and elsewhere with impunity, entitlement over the lands that were stolen from the First Nations, and all too often ignorance about the plunder of labour, energy, and resources that happens in the majority world (often known as the Global South) to sustain shameless sprawl and consumerism here.
So, let’s do a degrowth radical green new deal in Canada. We begin with permanent nationwide Citizens Assemblies that would be tasked to provide answers to the following questions and more:
What is the fair amount for a maximum wealth limit for all Canadians?
What is the procedure to establish housing as a human right?
How can we protect the entire biosphere, of which we are all members, against the interest of profit-seekers?
How can we establish a job guarantee program that eliminates unemployment, creates well paid, decent, necessary jobs for all those who want it?
How much should the maximum income, or maximum wage gap be?
How can we expand public transportation nationwide, and make it free, sustainable, and ultra-accessible?
How can we phase out the stock market while maintaining fair value of pensions and savings, to build real value in the economy that is connected with the physical world?
How can be build sustainable provisioning systems for healthy food and essential products?
How can we phase in economic democracy, and phase out the profit motive?
How can we pay for our colonial responsibility to contribute to global climate and social justice?
This would be just the beginning. We will know what the entire country actually believes, once we engage all Canadians in the process. We will have crowd-sourced policies to back up the public sentiment. Whatever government will occupy Parliament Hill in Ottawa, they will be forced to listen, and execute the will of Canadians.
We should also remember that there is big public support for this kind of transformation, worldwide:
In the world’s largest standalone survey on climate change, 72% of people globally said they want their country to move away from fossil fuels to clean energy quickly; 62% of Canadians said their country needs to give more help to poorer countries to address climate change; 47% of Canadians are more worried, and 40% about the same worried about climate change, compared to last year.
A survey of people in 34 European countries found that, on average, 61% of people favour post-growth. That is one way of saying degrowth, without saying it.
A survey study done by the German Environment Agency found that 88% agree that “we must find ways of living well regardless of economic growth”, and 77% agree that “there are natural limits to growth, and we went beyond them.
70% of more than 10,000 people surveyed in 29 high-income and middle-income countries believe that “overconsumption is putting our planet and society at risk”; 65% believe that “our society would be better off if people shared more and owned less”.
A study exploring two survey datasets found that 61% of the Spanish public hold growth-critical positions (agrowth or degrowth), with less than one-third of respondents in the survey expressing support for green growth.
A responsible consumption survey found that 52% of French people believed that "we need to review all or part of our economic model and get away from the myth of infinite growth".
Poll shows that 81% of people in Britain believe that the prime objective of the government should be to secure “the greatest happiness” for people rather than “the greatest wealth”.
Two in three people across 17 G20 countries surveyed (68%) agree that the way the economy works should prioritise the health and wellbeing of people and nature, rather than focusing solely on profit and increasing wealth.
Another French study found that 67% of respondents had a "favourable" or "quite favourable" opinion of the term "degrowth". Importantly, people from all the political spectrum had a majority favourable opinion of "degrowth" (86% for the far left and 59% for the far right).
Degrowth, post-capitalism are actually very popular among scholars and citizens: a survey of nearly 500 sustainability scholars found that 77% call for post-growth pathways in high-income countries; a study of European citizens’ assemblies found that sufficiency policies enjoy very high approval rates (93%); a survey shows that a majority of people around the world (56%) agree with the statement “Capitalism does more harm than good”, in France it is 69%, in India it is 74%; a 2018 poll shows that 70% of US citizens believe that “environmental protection is more important than economic growth” – how about that!
When are we actually going to talk to all Canadians about what they actually think, instead of jumping to opinions that degrowth is not politically feasible?
Dear Canadians, don’t be afraid about degrowth. That syllable “de” is also in front of beautiful words, like democracy, decent, delicious. Degrowth is the path from crisis to wellbeing. Once you realize that infinity (the wet desire of growth-seeking capitalism) cannot fit into finitude (Planet Earth) you will suddenly have agency to agree that capitalism must go, so we can phase in sustainable wellbeing for everyone, forever.
Note: originally published on https://vladbunea.substack.com/p/canada-needs-a-degrowth-green-new
Vlad Bunea is a video essayist, economist, author, and activist based in Toronto. He is a founding member of Degrowth Collective and the International Degrowth Network. His most recent book is The Urban Dictionary of Very Late Capitalism, and his upcoming book is Degrowth of Humans and Sheep. You may contact Vlad at vladbunea@gmail.com