Economic ‘Degrowth was already proposed in 1850s by JS Mill’ – ‘Bad argument then…bad argument today’
John Stuart Mill: In 1848, decades into the Industrial Revolution, Mill wrote that “[h]itherto it is questionable if all the mechanical inventions yet made have lightened the day’s toil of any human being. They have enabled a greater population to live the same life of drudgery and imprisonment...”[3]Mill’s answer as to why this was the case was, at its core, Malthusian. The fruits of innovation had not been equally shared, he argued — a few made fortunes, and productivity growth had increased the comforts of the middle classes, but most saw no benefit and would not do so until “the increase of mankind shall be under the deliberate guidance of judicious foresight.”[4]
By: Marc Morano - Climate DepotMay 5, 2021 1:30 PM
Bjorn Lomborg: “Degrowth was already proposed in 1850s by JS Mill. “Most advanced” countries already had enough, just needed better distribution. In 1850, UK was below Bangladesh today. Bad argument then. Probably bad argument today.
https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-13-winter-2021/degrowth-in-the-age-of-dickens Degrowth in the Age of Dickens
Mar 1, 2021
By Charles Kenny – a senior fellow and the Director of Technology and Development at the Center for Global Development.
https://www.climatedepot.com/2021/05/05/economic-degrowth-was-already-proposed-in-1850s-by-js-mill-bad-argument-then-bad-argument-today/