GDP-iecing it together

The American economist Kenneth Boulding once joked that "anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist".

But since the middle of the 20th Century, economic growth is all that we have been striving for. Gross Domestic Product, which measures the total of all economic value created in an economy in a given period of time, has been described as a "holy grail", used as a shorthand for economic health and prosperity.

Many see GDPShort for Gross Domestic Product, the measure of all the goods and services produced inside a country. as a flawed metric. Robert F KennedyAn American politician and lawyer, and the brother of US president JFK. He was assassinated in 1968. remarked in 1968 that it measures "everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile".

In other words, GDP accounts for people's hours at a summer job and in the shopping centre, but not the time they spend laughing in the park with friends or teaching their younger sibling how to read. It is a measure of money moving from hand to hand, but it excludes other ways we find satisfaction in our lives.

It is a truth hard to swallow. We are sold on the idea that when our economy grows, we are happier and better off; when we hit recessionA period of economic decline. A recession occurs when a country's Gross Domestic Product falls for six months in a row.  periods, we suffer. This is because when real GDP grows, employment, spending and real wages often grow too.

But a lot of research suggests that in economically developed countries, a growth in GDP no longer has a strong correlationA connection between two things in which one thing changes as the other does, but it is not necessarily the case that one thing has caused the other to change. to greater happiness or living standards for the majority, since inequality is so high.

Degrowth offers a radical modern solution. In simple terms, degrowthers call for scaling back our consumption of the earth's resources and shrinking our economies rather than growing them.

It is a policy increasingly favoured by environmentalists, who argue that it will be impossible to reduce emissions and meet our climate targets without a significant drop in consumption on a global scale.

Others reject this concern, pointing out that as many as 32 countries have already succeeded in "decoupling" emissions from GDP, meaning that emissionsThings that are released, such as gases, as part of a process. E.g. greenhouse gases. and climate impact can decline even as the economy continues to grow.

As one economist emphasised, "the concept of degrowth is not, in fact, anti-growth. It is anti-growthism". For as long as we pursue growth at the expense of goals such as human happiness and a sustainable future, we will always fall short.

Yes: Degrowth allow us to take a step back to remedy unsustainable levels of inequality and also provide us with the opportunity to build green economies to hit our climate goals.

No: Economic growth is responsible for our longer life expectancies, new technologies, medical treatments and more. And there is strong evidence that emissions can be shrunk whilst GDP still grows.

Or... Economic degrowth does not seem viable, but individual degrowth is still something we should all aspire to. Personal degrowth just involves buying less, wasting less, and trying to support ourselves in the most sustainable way possible.