The assimilation of degrowth ideas into the mainstream portends dire consequences for economic well-being. Degrowth is trumpeted as the solution to averting a climate catastrophe, but it will reverse the economic fortunes of practitioners. Sustained economic growth became the norm recently in history, and surely most people don’t want a return to a preindustrial era with episodic growth and lower living standards. The typical person today would be reluctant to trade the luxuries of economic growth for the trinkets that a less dynamic society affords.Despite the effusive praise for degrowth, it is difficult to take proponents seriously because they lack a frame of reference. Upper-class intellectuals in rich countries shouldn’t be recommending degrowth because they have never been
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