No Growth

No growth allowed:

Climate liars aren’t trying the save the planet, they’re trying to oppress the planet’s inhabitants. This reality is clear in a recent article from the Atlantic, as Climate Depot quoted: The crazy idea is “degrowth communism,” a combination of two concepts that are contentious on their own. Degrowth holds that there will always be a correlation between economic output and carbon emissions, so the best way to fight climate change is for wealthy nations to cut back on consumption and reduce the “material throughput” that creates demand for energy and drives GDP. The article continues: The degrowth movement has swelled in recent years, particularly in Europe and in academic circles. The theory has dramatic implications. Instead of finding carbon-neutral ways to power our luxurious modern lifestyles, degrowth would require us to surrender some material comforts. One leading proponent [Kohei Saito] suggests imposing a hard cap on total national energy use, which would ratchet down every year. Energy-intensive activities might be banned outright or taxed to near oblivion. (Say goodbye, perhaps, to hamburgers, SUVs, and your annual cross-country flight home for the holidays.) You’d probably be prohibited from setting the thermostat too cold in summer or too warm in winter. To keep frivolous spending down, the government might decide which products are “wasteful” and ban advertising for them. Slower growth would require less labor, so the government would shorten the workweek and guarantee a job for every person. The outlet added that Saito specifically identifies as a Communist. Saito describes a fantasy that could never happen in the real world, in which the people voluntarily and democratically sacrifice their comforts and rights for minimal socialist welfare and workers’ cooperatives.

Because it's for the greater good, or something...