Exploring the global degrowth movement leads directly to local organizations like Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie in Leipzig.
A few days ago I paid a visit to the Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie, and the two representatives – Mo was one of them – told me that the Konzeptwerk is actually already in its third or fourth generation. That means some of the original founders aren’t even active anymore, after the association grew, as far as I know, in 2010 or 2011 – so roughly 16 years ago now – out of a circle of academics at Leipzig University. And that explains a lot, because I’ve taken a critical look at the Konzeptwerk before: originally, the core idea of the association was to spread the principles of the New Economy and carry them out into the public, and I think right now you can’t really see that at the Konzeptwerk anymore. They started out with the school of thought of “degrowth”, which in turn grew out of the ideas of the “Club of Rome”, and at some point, I think, the Konzeptwerk kind of stalled in its development.
Now there are new organizations, like “System Delta”, which is still being founded and grew out of an initiative by the scientist Martin Oetting, who first had his own project. At its core, it’s about criticizing the ideology – you could almost say: the religion – of eternal, never-ending economic growth. And that is still one of the most important tasks: that we say goodbye to this historically fairly young and short-lived story that there is “prosperity for all” (Wohlstand für alle) – which isn’t true to begin with – and that this prosperity can only be kept and increased if GDP, gross domestic product, keeps on growing.
That is demonstrably not the case. In the Global South, for example, there are countries like Costa Rica that have a far lower GDP per capita than the industrialized countries of the Global North, but do far better than them on the well-being index and on criteria like mental health, happiness, self-fulfilment and many other areas. In Germany we clearly have the problem that we’re all overwhelmed, that we’re all at our limit when it comes to our personal, physical and above all mental resources. And for God’s sake, the answer to that cannot be that we need even more economic growth!
On the contrary: we have to disarm, we have to wind down entire industries – and the first industry that springs to mind is advertising. Because if I can only sell my product or my service by spending massive resources on promoting it, then the product or service can’t be that good, and the real demand for it just isn’t there. Right at the beginning, back when Google was still basically one of the “good guys”, they refused to run classic advertising of their own on commercial channels, because they said: if our product isn’t good enough to get shared on its own – “word of mouth” – then we have to work on the product. And that’s exactly how I see it too: people today are perfectly capable of searching for and finding the things they need themselves.
So why does there have to be massive advertising that is simply sensory overload, that intrudes on our privacy and on our “Commons”, and that gnaws away at our mental health? This violence – exercised through advertising, false promises and constant distraction, without me being able to escape it – demonstrably leads to mental and psychological problems. And then this damage has to be fixed and carried by the community of solidarity, all of us who pay into the system: because people go to the doctor, call in sick, apply for psychotherapy and tie up authorities and bureaucracy. So the costs are externalized onto the community and not borne by the people profiting from these products – products that give our dopamine levels a short boost, but do long-term damage to individuals and to society.
That’s why: this GDP talk – it has to stop, if we want to save the young generations. And we have to start with advertising: it has to be reduced and regulated. Right away, lots of people start yelling: “You communist, that can’t be allowed, we need freedom!” But that’s exactly what we need to discuss: what exactly is this freedom – the freedom of capital or the freedom of people? There has always been regulation, there has to be, and regulation and restrictions demonstrably lead to creativity, to new ideas and to real innovation. That’s why I’m in favour of starting with the advertising industry and then systematically moving on to other industries. The next one that springs to mind is the sugar industry. But we can also take a look at the big basic materials industries: we don’t need that much steel, we don’t need that much concrete, we don’t need that much asphalt, and we don’t need that much wood either. We have to cut this entire consumption of materials – that would also curb our hunger for energy and improve our mental health, because then we’d finally have more time for the things that really matter in life.
What do you take away from this thought?
Thank you. Every answer fits – take it with you into your day. Would you like to share something yourself?
