This might seem like an impossible bind; and indeed it’s one reason why politicians consider degrowth to be so unthinkable. But there’s a way out. As we shed unnecessary jobs we can shorten the working week, going from forty-seven hours (the average in the United States) down to thirty or perhaps even twenty hours, sharing necessary labour more evenly among the working population and maintaining full employment. This approach would allow everyone to benefit from the time that’s liberated by degrowth. And retraining programmes can be deployed to ensure that people are able to transition easily
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