[Reader-list] Germany's post-growth debate

[Nagraj Adve]

Germany's 'post-growth' movement

Prompted by concerns for the environment and secure in their prosperity,
many Germans are questioning the value of growth

   -  <http://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?app_id=180444840287&link=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/19/germany-post-growth-movement&display=popup&redirect_uri=http://static-serve.appspot.com/static/facebook-share/callback.html&show_error=false>Sherelle
   Jacobs <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/sherelle-jacobs>


   -
      -
      - guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Wednesday 19 September
      2012 15.43 BST
      -

 [image: Earth Hour In Berlin]
A volunteer lights one of 5,000 blue and green candles in front of the
Brandenburg Gate during Earth Hour 2012 in Berlin. Many Germans now value
protection of the environment over material prosperity. Photograph: Adam
Berry/Getty Images

Growth is a complicated business. Over the centuries, economists have not
only been divided over how to make it come about, but over whether it is
really a good thing in the first place. On the one hand, we want to live
comfortable existences free of struggle, but then again many of us would
prioritise greater social equality or preserving the environment over
endless economic enrichment. As we shudder through the collective hangover,
growth for growth's sake now finds itself under fresh scrutiny.

Ironically it is in affluent
Germany<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/17/angela-merkel-shape-europe-german-image>,
the only place in Europe that currently seems to have any hope of economic
growth, where the consensus on the intrinsic value of growth is most
sceptical. A recent survey commissioned by Bertelsmann Stiftung found that
eight out of ten Germans crave a new economic order. The number of Germans
who see growth as very important was down 14% compared with two years ago.
The proportion of Germans who highly value money and possessions also
dropped. Nearly two-thirds disagreed with the idea that a higher income
could increase their quality of life. Many Germans now value protection of
the environment over material prosperity, according to the findings.

Academic research seems very much in line with the popular mood: German
thinkers are increasingly publishing work, which denounces growth and touts
drastic alternative economic policies. One of the more high-profile members
of this movement is Niko
Paech<http://www.goethe.de/ges/soz/wsc/en9188517.htm>from the
University of Oldenburg, who recently published a controversial
new book called Liberation from Affluence, in which he lambasts growth ,
argues that societies need to shrink their economies, and calls for an
embrace of self-sufficiency models and regional exchange. His policies for
the ideal society include a 20-hour week, the introduction of regional
currencies, and decommissioning large development projects such as
motorways and airports.

Reinhard Loske <http://www.loske.de/> is another member of the so-called
"post-growth" movement. In Where Now With the Growth Question? he advocates
the formation of innovative transition towns featuring social banking,
taxation according to environmental consumption rather than labour, and an
enforced basic income. Meanwhile, conservationist Angelika Zahrnt, in her
co-edited book on a post-growth economy, rallies for less paid work and
more free time for the workforce.

Many adherents to this burgeoning academic bloc can barely conceal their
contempt for the financial architecture underlying the German economy and
those of other western countries. To them, the modern financial sector is
responsible for the current economic downturn, and in need of complete
overhaul. They include economic commentator Thomas Jorberg, who has argued
for a ban on financial services that don't service the real economy and
claims that banks should only be allowed to partake in activities that
address basic human needs.

Some of these ideas seem far-fetched. But they have received a genuine
hearing in Germany: a review of the books by Paech and Loske was published
in the leading national newspaper Zeit earlier in September with the title:
*Frau Merkel, lesen Sie diese
Bücher*<http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.zeit.de/2012/35/Paech-Loske-Wirtschaftswachstum-Wachstumswahn&prev=/search%3Fq%3DFrau%2BMerkel,%2Blesen%2BSie%2Bdiese%2BB%25C3%25BCcher%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1392%26bih%3D950%26prmd%3Dimvns&sa=X&ei=NKBZUN-VC5OGhQfQ_YDABw&ved=0CCQQ7gEwAA>("Frau
Merkel, read these books").

Perhaps a convergence of two factors helps to explain this shift. First,
the financial crisis may have made some Germans more wary of growth as an
ultimate end goal for a country. Second, their relative wealth gives
Germans the luxury of security, and that security in turn makes them more
likely to indulge in postmaterialist musings.

This idea fits neatly within the theories of the modern father of
post-materialism, Ronald
Inglehart<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Inglehart>.
Writing in the 1970s, Inglehart argued that prosperity alone would ensure
that humanity's values would gradually shift from materialism to
postmateralist values like autonomy and self-expression. It also chimes
with common sense: is it not natural that Germans, who are more likely to
have steady jobs and can pay the mortgage, are less concerned with economic
enrichment than Greeks who struggle to find a job?

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell, the
controversial author Edward
Abbey<http://www.abbeyweb.net/introduction.html>once said. That might
seem like a rather brutal declaration. But since the
financial crisis, it seems many Germans, both exposed to crisis and
isolated from the worst effects, would be tempted to agree.