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A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

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qualitative way, i.e. in its vital correlation to human needs, and that a bureaucratic<br />

implementation of planning must be avoid. That can only be<br />

avoided when labour will be emancipated (see above). 62<br />

3. Growth or development?<br />

I totally agree with the distinction between growth and development<br />

the text makes in paragraph 63. I want to give this issue body with some<br />

fact and figures and by asking the question if a ‘another growth’, i.e. a<br />

growth which harmonise with nature, is feasible, and also which are<br />

possible pitfalls.<br />

Growth as such is desirable and even necessary when there are not<br />

enough resources to give all people on earth a decent life. What’s the<br />

actual situation? An average family worldwide consists of two adults<br />

and three children. If wealth were distributed equally such a average<br />

family would have a disposable income of 2.884 dollars. 63 This is more than<br />

enough to give all inhabitants on this planet sanitation, electricity, drinkable<br />

water and a comfortable house, even if all this would be produced<br />

according to sustainable standards. Still, 40 percent of world population<br />

lack basic sanitation, one in four has no electricity, and one in six has no<br />

drinkable water or a decent house. 64 To put it in another way, with the<br />

wealth produced today, a single person could possible have on average<br />

a disposable income of $ 19 a day, but in reality one out of five persons<br />

has less than $1.25 per day. 65<br />

What is more, to meet the basic needs and eradicate extreme misery<br />

worldwide, no further growth of the world economy is necessary. On<br />

62 Mészáros I., op. cit., p. 152.<br />

63 Figures of 2008, in $ PPP, based on UNDP, Human Development Report 2010,<br />

New York 2010.<br />

64 UNDP, Human Development Report 2006, New York 2006, p. v, 35; Shah A.,<br />

Poverty Facts and Stats, September 20, 2010, http://www.globalissues.org/article/<br />

26/poverty-facts-and-stats.<br />

65 Amounts in $ PPP. World Bank, Measuring Global Poverty (2009), http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTRES/Resources/469232-1127252519956/<br />

measuring_<br />

glo bal.html.<br />

123

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