The illusion of “degrowth” in a poor and unequal world

Introduction to the article by the author: I have recently had Twitter and email discussions with a couple of people who are strong proponents of “degrowth”. From these exchanges I got the impression that there were unaware of just how unequal and poor (yes, poor) the world is today and what would be the trade-offs if we really were to decide to fix the volume of goods and services produced and consumed in the world at the current level. This is just an attempt to present some back-of-the-envelope calculations that should be improved very much in a serious attempt to examine the alternatives. This blog post started a discussion between Branko Milanovic and Jason Hickel. See the full chronology of the discussion below Original blog post by Branko Milanovic "The illusion of “degrowth” in a poor and unequal world" First reply by Jason Hickel "Why Branko Milanovic is wrong about de-growth" Reply by Branko Milanovic "The illusion of degrowth: Part II" Second Reply by Jason Hickel "De-growth is feasible: people want a new economy"