We at Research & Degrowth are repeatedly being told that our framing won't work. That we are preaching to the choir by the way we frame our proposals, and that we will never convince the broader public. So, here are our policy proposals re-framed in the language of the U.S. elections.
Abolish all income tax on incomes lower than $50,000 dollars per year. Finance this tax break by establishing a sovereign carbon fund financed by charges to the oil, coal and natural gas industry and by a carbon fee on trade imports.
Make Friday a day off that we can dedicate to our families, friends and communities. Do not reduce salaries: same pay for four days of work. President Roosevelt did it during the Great Depression. This alone can create 10 million new jobs.
No bank should lend more than its deposits. Banks cannot be allowed to create money out of thin air, while all the rest of us have to work hard just to get by.
Each and everyone should have the freedom to choose how to live their lives free from illness, hunger or fear. Establish a permanent freedom income of $800 per month, for every American. Pay for the income like Alaska did with a sovereign carbon fund. If this is not enough, finance it with a sovereign capital fund, funded by a progressive fee on excessive capital.
Hard-working Americans should have the right to inhabit housing assets that are left unused for more than one year for the purpose of speculation.
Degrowth has been described as a “movement” rather than an ideology1, and as such it presents several variations. For some of its proponents, degrowth is a proxy for sustainable consumption, and to a lesser extent production2. A second group of degrowth advocates are those for whom an emerging discussion of “sufficiency” as a societal norm is taking shape, as a result of activism3. Finally, a t...
Wirtschaftswachstum ist einerseits ein klar definierter Begriff der Wirtschaftswissenschaften, andererseits ein ideologischer Kampfbegriff: Wer sich nicht vorauseilend von Wachstum distanziert, gilt als Betonkopf, weil Wachstum mit Ressourcenverbrauch und -schädigung gleichgesetzt wird. Übersehen wird dabei, dass auch „Null-Wachstum“ oder sogar wirtschaftliche Schrumpfung mit zunehmender Schädigung der Umwelt verbunden sein können, dann nämlich, wenn sich Produktionsstrukturen verschieben. [...]
Auf der Tagung der Attac Gender AG “Schneewittchen rechnet ab” am 3. November 2012 arbeiteten über 100 Teilnehmer_innen gemeinsam dazu, was (queer-)feministische Ökonomie leisten kann. Wo stößt sie an Grenzen und wie kann eine sinnvolle Weiterentwicklung gedacht werden? Welche Alternativen der Arbeit und der Produktion gibt es? Und nicht zuletzt: Wie wollen wir leben? Im [...]
