A POSTCAPITALIST PARADIGM: THE COMMON GOOD OF ...

So ‘another growth’ or even a ‘de-growth’ [63] is not only necessary, it’s
also feasible. We have to reject consumerist delusions and orient the
economy towards human development in harmony with the boundaries
of nature. 73 According to Foster et. al., quantitative growth has to be
substituted by qualitative growth. That means ‘bringing mere quantitative
growth (in aggregate terms as currently measured) to a halt in the
rich countries, and then reversing growth, while at the same time qualitatively
expanding the range of human capacities and possibilities and
the diversity of nature.’ 74 To achieve this goal, new measures of the economic
activity are necessary. In the recent past there were interesting
proposals to substitute GDP by the Genuine Progress Index (GPI) or the
Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW). 75
The idea of a fundamental change of the economic logic is slowly gaining
ground in government circles. At the World Peoples’ Conference on Climate
Change and the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, April
2010, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Minister of Cultural Patrimony of
Ecuador stood up for a radical review of the economy: ‘We must no longer
grow and accumulate. We must found a new way of building the
economy and of interacting with nature. The structural causes of climate
change and of all the world’s problems are of the same order, and so
also must be the responses. They must be structural, revolutionary, and
deep.’ 76 So it’s reassuring that the desire of another economic paradigm
and practice is not limited to academic circles or pressure groups. But,
as we all know, a lot remains to be done.
I conclude this part mentioning two possible pitfalls. The first pitfall is
to see consumption as the whipping boy. It is true that we will have to
alter our consumption pattern. But it is production and not consumption
73 Herrera R., Un autre capitlaisme n’est pas possible, Paris 2010, p. 80f.
74 Foster J., Clark B. & York R., op. cit., p. 396.
75 http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/Training/Indicators/GPI.html.
76 Espinosa M., ‘Climate Crisis: A Symptom of the Development Model of the
World Capitalist System’, Speech to the Panel on Structural Causes of Climate
Change, World Peoples’ Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother
Earth, Cochabamba, April 20, 2010, http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2010/espinosa300610.html.
128