SUSTAINABILITY
The proposal of French economist and philosopher Serge Latouche
Statistics, markets, opinion-makers all agree that the current economic model is marked by serious limits and contradictions under the social, environmental and cultural angles. The crisis raises new questions, severely impacting families and youths. But the question raised by Serge Latouche on March 12, during a meeting in the outskirts of Rome goes much deeper than that: "Does this system make us happy?" If the answer is "no", he added, "then we should ask ourselves whether the current consumption model" is both "sustainable" and "worth wishing for". The renowned "Degrowth Theory", by world celebrated French economist and philosopher Serge Latouche, has marked a radical change in the understanding of economy and social and human relations. He is now in Rome to attend several meetings on "serene degrowth" and on "how to exit the crisis". Maria Chiara Biagioni attended his conferences for Sir Europe.In a few years the feast will be over. "We’ve living in a society of growth and consumption – Latouche said – called globalization, promoted in an economy whose goal is growth for growth". In order to thrive this system needs three forms of unlimitedness: unlimitidness in production, unlimitedness in the creation of artificial and superfluous needs, unlimitedness in the production of pollution and waste. Consumption society not only prompts inequality and frustration. Indeed, it’s "unsustainable and incompatible with a finished planet", Latouche said. The reports on the state of health of planet earth, starting with the Fifth Climate Change Report, due to be presented in a few months, bear witness to the situation. The scholar argues against Western Countries whose 20% of world population consume 86% of world resources. Latouche drew a comparison with the parable of the "Prodigal Son": "We depend on resources more than on what we produce. This system won’t last forever. Between 2030 and 2070 the party will be over". "Does this system make us happy?" This is the question that Latouche asked his interlocutors. "Until the 1970s wellbeing coincided with ‘well-having’. Since then, wellbeing gradually began to decrease". Three indexes measure the degree of happiness of a people: life expectancy at birth; environmental impact and the subjective felling of happiness, that includes the number of suicides and employment rate. According to these indexes Italy ranks 66th and the United States is ranked 150. These figures underline that "wellbeing does not depend on consumption levels" but on "non quantifiable values", such as "the richness given by social life, friendship and relationships". "A happy population – Latouche argues – does not consume". Thrifty abundance and the political agenda. "Thus consumption society is unsustainable and not worth wishing for. We get out of it, but whereto? We must follow the direction of thrifty abundance", said the French scholar. Which doesn’t mean going back in time. Rather, it means "limiting our needs. This is thriftiness". Latouche’s "concrete utopia" is centered on 8 verbs: "To reconvert, to restructure, redistribute and relocate, recycle and reuse". Quoting from economic scholars, including "Catholic" economist Luigino Bruni, Latouche calls for a "rupture", namely, a change in the horizon of meaning whereby the current values linked to unbridled consumption are replaced by cooperation, where the destruction of the planet is replaced by a life in harmony with nature, not individualism but relationship". This also requires a political program that Latouche lists in 10 points, which include the relocation of productive activity ("not producing more, but producing what we need", and possibly without importing from abroad), reducing working hours ("everyone in employment for a better life"), prioritising solutions to unemployment – "an authentic catastrophe" – in political agendas. Its overall implementation "requires conviction, courage and consensus". Conviction is the feeling which our politicians are missing the most. But it’s up to us to increase consensus". At the end of the meeting a child took the microphone and asked the economist "if there is hope for the future of the very young": "Yes", Latouche replied, "there will be blood, tears and sweat. But there is hope. Hope is the only way to build a better future for the next generation".
