Slow Down or Die The Economics of Degrowth

Having read and listened to several interviews with French economist Timothée Parrique, I find him to be another charismatic and eloquent spokesman whom I will gladly make time for. Slow Down or Die immediately grabs the attention with its punchy, no-nonsense title. It then proceeds to deliver the goods, both as an analysis of the problems with our growth-obsessed economy and a clear overview of the proximate and ultimate goals of degrowth. A passionate, well-structured, and ultimately uplifting argument, this one will have you climb the barricades to overthrow our capitalist overlords in no time.

This book has been translated from the 2022 French original. Though Parrique frequently refers to the political and social situation in France, his analysis is not limited to his native country, so this does not get in the way of the broader relevance of his arguments. He breaks it down into two parts, spending four chapters on growth and four on degrowth.

Even if you are a growth convert, the excellent organisation and logical flow of the book's first half should soon have you questioning your convictions. In tracing the history and well-publicised limitations of today's key economic metric GDP, Parrique immediately poses good questions and gives sensible answers. Our fixation on growth stops us from asking what the economy is actually for. His more inclusive concept of the anthropological economy argues its goal is, ultimately, "the social organization of need satisfaction [...] a form of mutual aid; it's about doing together what we could not have accomplished alone" (p. 20). It should not be about accumulation of wealth, but improving everyone's quality of life; and economic *efficiency* (carefully managing limited resources) should just be a means to achieve economic *sufficiency* (providing everyone with what they need). An economy that fails to do this, e.g. capitalism, is not fit for purpose.

Continuous economic growth quickly runs into ecological, social, and political limits. As a biologist, the ecological limits are close to my heart. Parrique eviscerates "green growth", the idea that we can somehow decouple economic growth from its environmental impact, unmasking it for the accounting trick I suspected it to be. In outlining how it is not happening now, nor can happen in the future, he raises familiar arguments: the continuous decline in Energy Return on Investment (EROI) as the easiest resources have already been consumed, Jevons Paradox, the limits to recycling, and others. Less familiar to me, but no less convincing, are the social and political limits. Capitalism completely ignores the social infrastructure (e.g. domestic labour, community work, volunteering, etc.) that enables productive workers; it ignores the hard limit of our time and pushes us to dedicate more of it to work; it provides much more affluence than we need; and it commodifies and privatises goods and services that should not be. And if only it delivered on its political promises. Instead, it exacerbates poverty and economic inequality, gives us bullshit jobs, does nothing for our quality of life once basic needs are met, and is inadequately used to finance public services. Addressing all this requires wealth redistribution and social reform, not more economic growth.

Having covered the problem, the next four chapters discuss the proposed solution and are similarly logically structured to make a convincing argument. Parrique opens with an interesting intellectual history of degrowth, showing its roots, the outsized role of French thinkers, and the diversity of ideas and actions that fall under its umbrella today. He then explicitly separates the journey (degrowth) from the destination (a steady-state / post-growth economy), both of which have their own aims and challenges. Degrowth aims to downscale production and consumption to address our current ecological overshoot; its challenges are to do so democratically (a planned intervention rather than a chaotic recession), equitably (in Robin Hood style taking from the rich so the poorest can meet their basic needs), and with a focus on our well-being (providing public services, infrastructure, and basic financial support so that people can live decent lives). A steady-state economy aims to maintain that quality of life without further growth; its challenges are to do so harmoniously (not extracting and polluting more than ecosystems can handle), collectively (taking democratic control of what companies should and should not produce), and equitably (sharing wealth fairly).

In light of the opposition and misrepresentation that often befalls degrowth, Parrique cleverly concludes the book by tackling twelve common critiques. Some of these are patently absurd howlers made by those who do not understand it or seek to discredit it. Ironically, they often apply more to growth than degrowth. Others are valid points worth discussing, but are no reason to reject degrowth. Economic growth, Parrique argues with this book, is a social construct, a choice; we can choose differently. He is strident and optimistic throughout, painting a vision of a joyful world in which conviviality, fairness, and self-restraint take priority over individualism, greed, and limitless indulgence. That said, he is pragmatic about the challenges. None of this will be easy and cannot happen overnight. There are plenty of actionable ideas in this book, going well beyond the simplistic cri de coeur to "tax the rich". In a remarkable admission, he adds: "let's be honest, any answer to the "how" question will always be somewhat disappointing" (p. 240). But what of the inevitable pushback, lobbying, and gaslighting we can expect from politicians and companies unwilling to let go of their privileged positions? Western governments violently oppressing protesters and turning into police states adds another layer of complications, to put it mildly, and one that Parrique does not comment on here.

Beyond this, the other objections I have are more observations that fall in the category "concerns for later", and are no reasons not to pursue degrowth. First, I question what materials are truly sustainable. Parrique lays out the dots and then fails to connect them when, on page 172, he remarks that oil forms over hundreds of millions of years and then adds that the fundamental rule of any ecological economy is that it never outpaces the planet's regenerative capacity. Am I the only one to see a problem here? Second is that Parrique is silent on demography and human population size. Can we provide the social floor for 8–10 billion people without simultaneously breaching the ecological ceiling?

Nevertheless, Slow Down or Die is a spirited and convincing defence of degrowth that deserves to be read by proponents and detractors alike.