Consider one or more of the following questions to reflect on at the end of Subtopic 5.3. Discuss with another student or in a small group, or record (written, audio, video) your response.
Donella Meadows asked: 'Growth of what? For whom? At what cost? Paid by whom? How much is enough? What are the obligations to share?' Choose two of these questions and explain what they mean to you, and why you think more people should be asking them.
Many people use the words growth and development as if they mean the same thing. Consider them carefully. Growth means getting bigger. Development means improving in quality. Which one should states be aiming for? Can you think of examples where a country or community has had one without the other?
Section 5.3.1 shows that GDP misses unpaid care work, ecological damage, and economic inequality. Yet it was never designed to measure wellbeing. Simon Kuznets, who helped create GDP, warned that national welfare could not be inferred from it. Why do you think GDP became the dominant measure of economic success despite this warning? Who benefits from keeping it that way?
Section 5.3.2 describes growth dependency as a system trap. Of the eight financial and social drivers of growth dependency listed in the section, which do you think would be hardest to escape, and which might be easiest to change? Explain your reasoning.
Section 5.3.3 argues that green growth could reduce environmental damage while economies continue to expand, but Section 5.3.4 argues this is not enough. What is the strongest argument for green growth? What is the strongest argument against relying on it alone? Which do you find more convincing, and why?
A 2015 UN report stated: "Once in overshoot, the only way to safely get back within the carrying capacity is down: either through managed decline or through natural self-correction." What does this mean in plain language? How does it connect to the choice between degrowth and collapse described in Section 5.3.4? Does it change how you think about the urgency of acting now?
Degrowth is sometimes criticised as meaning sacrifice and hardship. Section 5.3.4 challenges this, arguing that for many people in high-income countries, degrowth could mean more time, stronger communities, and better wellbeing. Do you find this argument convincing? What would you personally be willing to give up, and what would you not want to lose?
Has a family member, neighbour, or someone you know ever experienced unemployment or very insecure work? If so, think about or discuss with them what that experience was like, and how it affected daily life, self-worth, or family relationships. How does their experience connect to what you learned in Section 5.3.5 about the precariat and the limitations of wage labour?
The New Economics Foundation has noted that the least well-paid jobs are often those that are among the most socially valuable, the jobs that keep communities and families together. Section 5.3.5 makes a similar argument. What does this inversion tell us about the values embedded in our current economic system? What would need to change for work to be valued according to its contribution to human and ecological wellbeing?
Section 5.3.6 explains that raising interest rates to fight inflation tends to harm low-income households most while protecting the profits of powerful firms. Economist Clara Mattei compares this to austerity. Do you agree that fighting inflation this way is a political choice, not just a technical one? What alternatives from the section do you think are most promising?
Section 5.3.7 asks what we measure and why it matters. If you could design one new indicator of wellbeing for your own community, what would it measure, and why? What would it tell us that GDP does not?
Section 5.3.8 describes the Doughnut Unrolled and its four lenses: local-social, local-ecological, global-social, and global-ecological. Many cities focus most on the local lenses and neglect the global ones. Why do you think that is? What responsibilities does your city or community have towards people and ecosystems beyond its borders?