Which industries should cease to exist immediately? And what ‘bullshit jobs’ should they take with them? In episode 143 of Overthink, Ellie and David explore the academic and social movement of ‘Degrowth.’ They discuss the imperial mode of living that has become normalized in the Global North, explain how it relates to the ‘iron law’ of capitalism, and detail how the degrowth movement seeks to build a communist future. In particular, they explore the pillars Kohei Saito’s degrowth communism. Why are degrowth scholars such as Saito so critical of the Green New Deal? Was Karl Marx himself a ‘degrower’? And what exactly does it mean to degrow the economy? In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts continue their discussion of the pillars of degrowth, thinking about the benefits abandoning the current division of labor and shortening work hours.

Works Discussed:

Ulrich Brand and Markus Wissen, The Imperial Mode of Living: Everyday Life and the Ecological Crisis of Capitalism

John Bellamy Foster, Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature

Jason Hickel, Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World

Matthew Huber, Climate Change as Class War: Building Socialism on a Warming Planet

Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy

Kohei Saito, Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto

Aaron Vansintjan, Andrea Vetter, and Matthias Schmelzer, The Future is Degrowth: A Guide to a World Beyond Capitalism

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From 230 Pound Couch Potato to 1-18 Half Marathon with Simon Ong