The theory underlying degrowth holds that human well-being is not necessarily linked to increased consumption. On the contrary, it maintains that a more sober and conscious life can lead to greater personal and collective satisfaction.
The central idea is that of voluntary self-limitation: learning to live with less without giving up quality of life. This implies a critical reflection on what truly matters in our existence: family ties, leisure time, creativity and social commitment become priorities over the unbridled possession of material goods.
In general terms, these concepts can be widely shared, but the moment we make them “land” in everyday life, a subjective problem arises that concerns the personal sphere of each of us. Everyone has a different idea of how many calories we should consume in a day, what their housing needs are, how we should dress, how much water we should use, and so on.
The answers will undoubtedly vary from person to person and will differ across the various areas of the globe. So it would be useful to define what level of living we could call decent on a global scale (Decent Living Standards, or DLS).
And here this recent study comes to our aid; we refer you to it for the full text. It is titled “Material Requirements of Decent Living Standards”.
How is this DLS estimated? We quote the concept verbatim from the study: “The method for estimating the MF DLS consists of four steps. First, we compile a list of services required by each DLS dimension and link them to their respective provisioning systems. Two types of provisioning systems are considered: flow as service, which represents flows such as food consumption for services such as nutrition, and stock management type, in which a stock in use, such as a building, a vehicle, an IT device or an appliance, is managed to provide a service to end users.”
In essence, it deals with the basic materials that each individual would need to live decently. Let us give a few examples. For nutrition, 2,084 kcal per day are estimated. Living space is 15 square metres. Water consumption is 50 litres per day per person. Each person should not produce more than 0.74 kg of waste. Not only that, the study also estimates how much energy each person would need by 2050.
But here comes the less “romantic” issue, or, if you prefer, the bad news for those of us in the “overgrown” world. The study examines, in projection, what would happen if we wanted to have a DLS “in line” across the whole planet. It is easy to understand how enormous the gap is between the poorest and richest countries and how much consumption in Western countries would need to be scaled down. Naturally, for poor countries it would be an improvement. All this would in practice also result in a “forced” redistribution of wealth. The subject is complex and concerns above all those who should degrow, that is, us with our lifestyle, for the benefit not only of the planet’s sustainability but of the lifestyle of the poorest countries. There are social, psychological, economic and political implications of no small importance. This article is not the place to address these aspects. There is a vast literature on the subject, to which are added recommendations and measures from national and international bodies.
The novelty, if we take this study as a reference, is that we now have the numbers. And they clearly tell us one thing: “degrowth” is possible. To each their own considerations.
