Moving Beyond Growth
Only when we abandon GDP as our guiding star can we begin to imagine a future that prioritizes life over abstraction.
I sit at my office, outside spring is around the corner, and life seems both distant and close at the same time. The soft rustling of the wind against the window reminds me that the world continues in its quiet, relentless way, indifferent to human constructs like GDP, stock markets, and economic forecasts. As a mother, I find myself constantly weighing the balance between preparing my children for the future and questioning what that future will even look like. The air is thick with uncertainty, and yet, beneath it all, I sense a shift, an opening for something new.
This week, across the ocean, President Donald Trump delivered a record-breaking hour and 40-minute speech to a joint session of Congress, declaring "America is back" and highlighting his administration's actions in the first six weeks of his second term. Notable points included signing nearly 100 executive orders, withdrawing from international agreements like the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization, and a proposal to impose hefty tariffs on major trading partners like Mexico, Canada, and China. He praised his adviser Elon Musk for efforts to reduce the federal government size, a painful story to follow. He also pledged to plant an American flag on Mars and suggested reclaiming the Panama Canal and acquiring Greenland. The speech faced significant backlash from Democrats, with some walking out and others, like Rep. Al Green, vocally protesting. Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin delivered the Democratic rebuttal, criticizing Trump's policies and vision.
As I reflect on these developments, I can't help but feel a growing dissonance between the political theater unfolding on the global stage and the intimate, pressing concerns of daily life. The grand promises of economic expansion and geopolitical maneuvering seem disconnected from the tangible realities of our planet's health and the well-being of our communities.
The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries' report, "Planetary Solvency: Finding Our Balance with Nature", touches on this same unspoken tension, the illusion that we can continue as we have, that our economies can expand indefinitely without consequence. The report speaks in the language of risks and liabilities, using financial metaphors to make clear what should already be obvious: we are bankrupting our planet. It introduces the concept of "planetary insolvency", a state where human activities consume more than the Earth can regenerate, where our debts to nature exceed its capacity to sustain us. Like a household living on credit, we are pushing further into the red, believing we can borrow endlessly without ever paying the price.
The report delivers an uncomfortable but necessary truth: if we continue on our current path, a dramatic reduction in GDP is not just likely but inevitable. A 50% contraction in global economic output may be required to bring human activity back within planetary limits. For some, this may sound like catastrophe, but for those who have spent years imagining a different way, it is a possibility that should be embraced. What if, instead of waiting for collapse, we intentionally built a system that thrives within these new parameters? The degrowth movement has long argued for this kind of shift, not as a loss, but as a recalibration, a return to a way of living that values sufficiency over excess, care over consumption, life over numbers.
Moving Beyond Growth
The European Beyond Growth Conference, which took place in 2023, echoed these ideas. It challenged the reliance on GDP as the measure of success, pointing out that economic expansion at all costs is not a sign of progress but of destruction. Participants argued for a broader, richer definition of well-being, one that acknowledges the value of clean air, thriving communities, and time spent with loved ones. What good is a growing economy if it erodes the very foundations of our existence? If my children’s future is measured not in security and connection but in rising sea levels and dwindling resources?
Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics offers a compelling vision of how we might restructure our economies. It imagines a world where we stay within ecological limits while ensuring that all people have access to the essentials of life. The model is deceptively simple: an inner ring where human needs are met and an outer boundary where planetary health is preserved. Between these two, there is space for a just and sustainable existence, something that our current system, obsessed with perpetual growth, fails to acknowledge.
Dismantling GDP’s Grip on Policy
For too long, GDP has dictated our policies, shaping a world where destruction is rewarded and well-being is ignored. We must let go of this outdated metric and replace it with indicators that truly reflect what matters. Governments must recognize that prosperity is not found in ever-rising numbers but in health, stability, and equity. Only when we abandon GDP as our guiding star can we begin to imagine a future that prioritizes life over abstraction.
Setting Planetary Boundaries in Law
Economic activity must be bound by the limits of what the Earth can sustain. This means enshrining in law the caps on resource extraction, emissions, and pollution. Without enforceable planetary boundaries, all other efforts are rendered meaningless, mere whispers against the roar of industries that continue to operate as though nature is infinite. We must demand accountability, not just for our own sake but for the generations that follow.
Redistributing Wealth and Work
A transition to a post-growth economy cannot deepen existing inequalities. Wealth must be shared, not hoarded, ensuring that basic needs are met for all, not just the privileged few. Work, too, must be reimagined. The relentless demand for productivity, for squeezing every last drop of labor from exhausted bodies, must give way to something more humane. Shorter work weeks, cooperative ownership, a balance between labor and life, these are not utopian dreams but necessary shifts if we are to move towards a system based on fairness rather than exploitation.
Centering Care and Cooperation
An economy built on endless consumption and extraction will always be fragile. A true, lasting economy is one that values the invisible labor that holds society together - care, mutual aid, and community. The Mothering Economy offers a different lens, one that places nurturing and sustenance at the core of economic activity rather than treating them as secondary concerns. It recognizes that the strongest societies are those that prioritize cooperation over competition, relationships over transactions.
Deepening Democratic Engagement
Economic transformation cannot be dictated from above; it must be rooted in collective action. We need systems that empower people, not just corporations and elites. Democracy must be deepened, not just in the political sphere but in workplaces, communities, and economic decision-making. A future worth fighting for is one that is shaped by many voices, not just those who currently hold power.
The degrowth movement insists on this: that prosperity is not measured in accumulation, but in sufficiency, in fairness, in the ability to thrive without excess. It calls for a radical redistribution, not only of resources but of time, care, and opportunity. It asks: What does it mean to live well? What does it mean to raise a child in a world where the economy serves people, rather than the other way around?
I glance out the window again. The light is shifting, the day stretching towards afternoon. My children will be home soon, and we will sit together, talk, laugh, share a meal. In these small moments, the future feels tangible. Fragile, yes, but still within reach. If we are brave enough to imagine something beyond growth, perhaps we can build a world that nurtures rather than depletes, a world where balance is not an afterthought but a guiding principle. A world where the numbers on a chart no longer dictate the worth of our lives.
