Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

by Jason Hickel

It’s true that nations with higher income tend in general to have better life expectancies than nations with lower income. But there is no simple causal relationship between these two variables. ‘The historical record is clear that economic growth itself has no direct, necessary positive implications for population health,’ Szreter points out. ‘The most that can be said is that it creates the longer-term potential for population health improvements.’9 Whether or not that potential is realised depends on the political forces that determine what kinds of things get produced, who has access to them, and how income is distributed. Progress in human welfare has been driven by progressive political movements and governments that have managed to harness resources to deliver robust public goods and fair wages.10 In fact, the historical record shows that in the absence of these forces, growth has quite often worked against social progress, not for it.