The magic word is back. Growth is more than ever, touted as the solution to all our problems. Evidenced by the debates around Mario Draghi’ s, the chairman of the European Central Bank (ECB) This « truth » is endorsed as a given by the candidates and it is presented as essential to the French, it is then about who will best at restoring Growth.
The mythology of Growth stipulates that a growth in GDP will lower unemployment: an argument, which has been completely proven false since the 70’s. Moreover a cycle of unemployment is necessary for the proper functioning of capitalism, so that work remains a negotiable value for the employer. However, what is true is that state tax revenues are indexed to the growth rate. The greater the growth, the higher the state’s budget. This is why governments need growth, and without it, they resort to debt. From the candidates’ perspective the economic mythology is secondary. Moreover, it remains a myth.
Even in the scientific, economic and political fields, it is recognized that an exponential growth is impossible for environmental, social and societal reasons. Does this mean that we must organize rigor? No. Neither rigor, nor “ri-lance” (reflation). This « rilance » is a sham which is neither sustainable nor desirable. There is nothing worse than a negative growth rate in a Growth society. There is only one solution to prevent the recession from becoming akin to barbarism. We need a paradigm shift.
This radically anti-capitalist, anti-productivist, ecologist, feminist and internationalist paradigm is that of the growth objectors, It offers solutions that are both socially just and ecologically sustainable: Unconditional Autonomy Allowance (unconditional income, free basic needs coupled with an incremental rise in prices for the additional consumption, free public services, demercantalisation, local fluid currencies), combined with a Maximum Allowed Income, Open relocalisation and proximity (agriculture, manufactured products, …), ecological agriculture, exit from industrialism and nuclear, an energy transition, and entry into the first democracy.
