real-world economics review, issue no. 99 subscribe for free
How Resource-Cheaply could we Live Well? Ted Trainer Copyright: Ted Trainer, 2022
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Abstract There is now a very strong case that global sustainability cannot be achieved unless there is large scale degrowth in rich-world economies, but there is little understanding of the magnitude of the reductions required. Reasons are given supporting the claim that rich world per capita resource consumption levels would need to be cut to a small fraction of present levels. This ca GD impacts. It can only be done by transition to far simpler lifestyles and systems, and therefore to radically different economies. The general alternative social forms required are sketched. The main purpose of the article is to show that quite large reductions in per capita consumption are feasible without jeopardizing the quality of life. This is done by detailing aspects of the way of life on a selected homestead site proceeding according to Simpler Way principles. It is explained that a general transition to these kinds of lifestyles and systems would not jeopardise the maintenance of socially-useful modern technology. The conclusion is that the large scale degrowth required for sustainable, just and satisfactory lifestyles and systems is achievable but only if there is transition to some kind of Simpler Way.
Introduction Most of the discussion of the global sustainability predicament focuses on the search for ways of enabling continuation of present rich world lifestyles and systems, but doing so with reduced resource demands and environmental impact. Relatively little attention is given to sustainability strategies focused on shifting to lifestyles and systems which do not involve high resource and ecological costs. There is now a very strong case that technical advance and effort to improve efficiency and productivity are not going to enable growth in GDP while resource and ecological impacts are brought down to sustainable levels. Extensive reviews involving hundreds of studies show that such a goal is not being achieved and is not likely to be. (See below.) This means that solutions to the global sustainability and equity/justice predicament must be sought in terms of shifting to lifestyles and systems which dramatically reduce resource demands and environmental impacts. The first section of the following discussion indicates the reasons for believing that the reductions must be much larger than is commonly imagined, actually in the region of 90%. If this is so, radical challenges are set for conventional and indeed for most alternative economic thinking, including within the Eco-socialist camp. (Trainer, 2020.) These considerations set the context for the main issue to be discussed in this study, which is how resource-cheaply it might be possible to live in these new simpler ways while enabling a good quality . (2017) , heoretical study of a Sydney suburb (Trainer 2019) which find that reductions in per capita consumption rates of the required order can be made without reducing the quality of life. However the focus in this article is to report numerical evidence on the ways practiced in a particular homestead within an illustrative
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