Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty, sheds light on the damaging obsession with economic growth. He argues that poverty transcends income levels, exposing how unequal growth amplifies social exclusion. The podcast critiques global trade favoring corporations over workers and debunks the myth of 'green growth.' De Schutter emphasizes the commodification of everyday life and champions a shift toward sufficiency to promote collective well-being. His insights call for a fundamental rethinking of economic priorities, focusing on human rights and social equity.
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insights INSIGHT
Poverty Includes Social Exclusion
Poverty is not just about lacking basic needs but also about social exclusion caused by inequality.
Even with income, people may feel humiliated if they can't match societal consumption standards.
insights INSIGHT
History of GDP Growth Focus
GDP growth emerged as a quick measure of economic recovery during the 1930s.
Its prominence grew despite environmental limits becoming evident in the 1970s due to economic crises.
insights INSIGHT
Growth Policies Harm Workers
Policies to encourage growth often weaken workers' rights and lower taxes on corporations.
This results in increased inequality, worker stress, and global burnout epidemics.
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Obsession with growth is enriching elites and killing the planet. Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and author of The Poverty of Growth, joins us. Highlights include:
Why poverty is about more than low income and how unequal economic growth creates greater social exclusion and status anxiety for the majority of people that growth leaves behind;
How global trade practices benefit corporations over workers, especially in low-income countries, driving inequality and limiting worker protections;
Why ‘green growth’ is a myth and that economic growth continues to be tied to both resource depletion and environmental damage;
How the commodification of life drives consumption and inequality, with more services that were once free or communal now privatized, creating a need for income rather than creating greater wellbeing;
How adopting norms of sufficiency could shift economies to focus on collective wellbeing and fair resource distribution over perpetual growth.
See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:
OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast]
OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.
Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.
OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance 
