SHOULD WE, DESPITE EVERYTHING, GROW? CHALLENGES TO DEGROWTH AS A HORIZON OF EXPECTATIONS

Abstract

Here I present, appealing to a local discussion in Argentina but easy to extrapolate to the global context, what I will call the tragic dilemma of growth: If we increase production, exports, and consumption, it is possible, in principle, to reduce poverty and inequality. The cost of this path is increasing environmental disruption. If we take the opposite path and favor degrowth, we may help prevent global warming and the destruction of the global ecosystem (Gaia). However, this will increase poverty and inequality. We either grow or degrow. Consequently, we either increase poverty and inequality or global warming and global ecological disruption. In spite of everything, it seems to me that there are good reasons to advocate for degrowth. In any case, at the end of the text, I try to show that the reasons currently used against degrowth are not such.