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Degrowth vs. Austerity

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Gross domestic product is not measuring the quality of a good life. It's measuring the amount of money that is circulating in a certain national economy. That means that if someone has a car accident for example, that is very good for the GDP. A new car has to be bought, people end up in the hospital, a lot of money is spent for healing these broken people. But this is not any kind of lucky event that happened there. And in addition many things that are really important for our lives, especially care work, is not measured at all in the GDP. Because it's not paid work. So especially the work of women and marginalized people is underappreciated in the GDP because it's not paid. Actually there is no real sense in making the GDP the measurement for everything. And it is nothing that should stay with us for the future.

Degrowth activists Andrea Vetter and Matthias Schmelzer talk to Chuck about their new book "The Future is Degrowth - A Guide to a World without Capitalism." https://www.versobooks.com/books/3989-the-future-is-degrowth

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Andrea Vetter

Andrea Vetter is a transformation researcher, cultural anthropologist, activist and journalist, using degrowth, commons and critical eco-feminism as tools.

 

 

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Guest

Matthias Schmelzer

Matthias Schmelzer is an economic historian, and Permanent Fellow at the DFG-Research Group "Post-Growth Societies" at the University of Jena and works at the Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie.

Matthias' bio page at the University of Jena

 

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