technology dynamics

technology dynamics

"The efforts to invent and introduce more environmentally friendly technologies – to reduce T (throughput per unit produced) in the IPAT equation3 – has been dwarfed by the increases in P (population) and especially in A (affluence). The rebound effect has been too strong in relation to the attempts to dematerialize production"

fighting Okun’s law

A yearly growth rate of 2–3 percent is needed just to keep unemployment from increasing. A combination of degrowth with macroeconomic stability therefore requires new policies for sharing work and changing the work–life balance . Reduced working hours can compensate for the loss of jobs due to increases in labor productivity (Andersson & Eriksson 2010, p.134).

investment into social & ecological infrastructure needs to be done by society

"The reason is that it is tricky for private investors to collect profits from this type of investment. The returns may also be realized too far into the future to be interesting for individual investors. In a socially and ecologically sustainable society savings and investments must not be reduced, but redirected into fi elds where the bene fi ts are widely spread – to people with low purchasing power, future generations and other species. A larger share of the savings should be used for public investments in those forms of capital that do not directly contribute to the production of commodities" (Andersson & Eriksson 2010, p.134).

"positively, there is the alternative policy of transferring
resources from industrial production to the more urgent task of
transforming the physical environment in which we live into something
less fit for machines perhaps, but more fit for human beings"

Andersson, J. O., & Eriksson, R. (2010). Chapter 9 “Growth and Degrowth - Is Another Economy Possible? In Elements of Ecological Economics (1st ed., p. 176). Taylor & Francis.