Degrowth Archives – Page 2 of 2 – Center for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy

Reframing the Debate: It’s the (Steady State) Economy, Stupid

October 14, 2021/18 Comments/in Degrowth, Politics, Postgrowth, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

May I offer you a pet peeve to chew on? I’m willing to share one for our mutual displeasure.

Here it is: Being told by academics and activists—nary a political expert among them—that “it doesn’t matter what you call it, as long as we’re all after the same thing.” With the possible exception of Donald Trump’s lips, nothing could be further from the truth. If common sense doesn’t suffice to illuminate the importance of name recognition,

Spaceship Earth and the Alien Economy: More than a Metaphor

March 11, 2021/6 Comments/in Consumption, Corporate Reform, Degrowth, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by James MacGregor Palmer

The year was 1965, and on the morning of July 9 in Geneva, Adlai Ewing Stevenson II prepared for his final speech to the UN. A former Governor of Illinois and presidential candidate, what he was about to say might still become his greatest contribution. But we’re in danger of forgetting it.

What Adlai Stevenson proffered the world that day was a metaphor. A simple yet powerful idea that,

Paying Taxes with Trophic Money: Watch Out for Environmental Backfires

March 4, 2021/12 Comments/in Brian Czech, Degrowth, Economic Growth, Economic Policy, Food and Agriculture, Governance, Monetary Policy, Politics, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Brian Czech

I didn’t set out to coin a phrase, but “trophic money” will be far handier than “money derived pursuant to the trophic theory of money.” The trophic theory of money is that money originates via the agricultural surplus that frees the hands for the division of labor into all the other economic activities, most basically manufacturing and services. It’s a theory of money that reflects not only the trophic structure of the economy—with manufacturing and services built upon a base of agriculture and extraction—but the fact that money is meaningless unless we have an agricultural surplus at the trophic base.

Is the Steady State Progressive?

February 18, 2021/6 Comments/in Consumption, Degrowth, Economic Growth, Jobs and Employment, Religion, Steady State Economy, Steady State Herald, Sustainability /by Brian Czech

by Brian Snyder

Karl Marx thought of history as progressive, moving from aristocracy to bourgeois capitalism to socialist revolution to communist utopia. While neoclassical economists such as Alan Greenspan and Paul Romer might not agree with Marx on much, they do agree that history tends toward progress. Today, nearly everyone on the political left and much of the political right is “historically progressive,” even if politically conservative. They all seem to believe that our children will inherit a more prosperous,

Archive for category: Degrowth

by Brian Czech

by James MacGregor Palmer

by Brian Czech

by Brian Snyder