Is prosperity without economic growth possible? | DW Documentary

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Critics of growth want to bring the economy into harmony with the environment and social well-being. They see a world that functions without constantly wanting more. But is that realistic?

Hamburg chefs Marianus von Hörsten and Aaron Levi Hasenpusch have decided to turn their back on the idea that a business should always be growing. Their restaurant is closed on weekends. It means more free time and less stress, but also less turnover and less income. For them, it’s feasible.

Otto Fuchs produces specialized metal components for the automotive and aviation industries. His company is aiming for "green growth" — to grow while operating in a climate-friendly way. But this is no easy task. In Germany, climate protection and the transition to green energy cost a lot of money.

Ulrike Herrmann, author of Das Ende des Kapitalismus (The End of Capitalism) is skeptical about green growth. She says it’s not possible, and advocates instead for "degrowth" in order to save the planet. Restructuring the economy would consume vast amounts of clean energy, and Germany simply couldn’t install that many wind turbines. In other words, we’ll have to rein ourselves in.

After the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland introduced a new economic evaluation: the "Wellbeing Economy". As well as measuring things that have a price tag, it also takes into account welfare and quality of life, including access to housing and green spaces, as well as gender equality. Negative factors like environmental degradation and the consumption of resources are also included. Kristín Vala Ragnarsdóttir is professor of sustainability science at the University of Iceland. She’s committed to the idea of a sustainable economy.

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We don't need new clothes every week. We don't need a new phone every year. We don't need a new car every 2 years. We DO need fresh air, clean water and safe food. Reducing overconsumption would be a good start.

eggplantandpeach
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Western countries can play holier than thou when it comes to pollution but all rhe goods made in China and India are sold in Western countries

davianoinglesias
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It’s easy to be eco friendly when your country is already among the wealthiest in the world. Germany only causes 2% of co2 emissions, directly. What about all the pollution caused by German investment and consumption of Chinese-manufactured goods? That restaurant they showed in the beginning, they serve seasonal vegetables, but what about all the utensils, plates, glasses, tables, light fixtures, etc? Were those sourced from carbon neutral factories?

agme
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You are enough. Don’t listen to advertising that’s tells you you are anything less without buying their products

wombatcitystudios
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To learn how to live sustainable it's easy. Go to any Eastern European country and spend a year with any family with adults over 50. You will learn to live with less than you can imagine.

MadalinIgnisca
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Working 7 days a week and no time for the family, that is not a life and you might die early!

butchfajardo
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That baker is mad, just have one of your staff do a day on rotation, crazy

jamesbyrne
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The irony of this dilemma is that it is framed as something all individuals should be striving for, and yet, global emissions are disproportionately correlated to income brackets. Just the top 10% of the global income ladder alone emit 50-60% of all CO2 emissions. Not a single argument has focused on the central task of climate being a class struggle rather than a consumption-based problem which middle-class consumers are responsible for. So long as growth continues and capital pours into increasingly consolidated corporations, capital accumulation and inequality will continue, resulting in disproportionate emissions by the wealthy. Wealth and luxury-goods taxes, antitrust, worker democracy, and making rentier capitalism obsolete (by taxing most forms of unearned income) are necessary. We are already seeing our future of so-called climate-friendly corporations dominate (big tech), and their new technologies are requiring data centers to consume an unparalleled amount of electricity which will power more automation and obsolescence of human labour. Is green growth really the answer?

FrudgeRS
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The problem is corporate greed...aka rich people greed.

gordonnorris
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I’d be really happy with more free time and a smaller economy. Humans lived for many thousands of years without a growing economy and without the factory type of schedule. We didn’t even have clocks until a few hundred years ago.

pashkaS
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Funny how the german family is looking for local stuff at the store. They found "local" chocolate cookies. Might be made by a local factory but where do they think the chocolate comes from? As far as I know. Coco beans don't grow in Europe.

ZeuSVI
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We need a good place to live in, enough good food, good pensionplans, good healthcare. We consider that the baseline. But it is an unthinkable luxury for 80 % of the planet.

carolineleiden
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The spoon isn't local! Kid's a genius.

Nickster
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I love her comment on the housing. Housing prices are already very expensive. Hence, if the housing stock is further reduced, then it will lead to ever increasing housing prices, so nobody except for a few like her can afford it. That does not sound like prosperity at all.

indjones
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It frustrates me that the Internet, LLMs and cloud computing are always ignored as major polluting sectors. This is a sector where growth is becoming entirely unsustainable, yet the eco activists don't seem to have it on their radar...

janofe
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I find it somehow sarcastic that they've asked an east German family to live for two weeks like east Germans thirty years ago... Anyway, just wanted to point out that local food being less polluting is mostly a myth. The type of food and how is it grown makes for the biggest share of it's emissions. Tomatoes grown locally at 60° latitude in a heated greenhouse are way more carbon intensive than if grown freely in a southern country and then delivered north. Just think that one single truck of tomatoes (40, 000 kg of cargo) could cover the needs of ten thousand people for weeks.

markotrieste
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It is, it's called redistribution.
We should all grow, not just wealthy and their corporations.

tride.design
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She says this, he claims that... This is typical of modern journalism. Good journalism requires more in depth reporting. It requires researching the issue and presenting an analysis of the claims and not just the superficial regurgitation of what people say.

reluginbuhl
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Nothing can grow forever, including population and economy

relafeng
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Amazon fulfilment centre? Nein danke. Amazon rainforest? Ja bitte.

pangolin