Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community
I am more or less in agreement with Dave Pollard on this thing - except that I don't really advocate 'zero growth' because I don't think that the indicator we call 'growth' actually measures anything. Well, and I don't agree with this either: "re-learning of entrepreneurial skills (since most big multinationals will collapse to make way for many more small, locally-based companies) and of self-sufficiency skills (growing our own food, making our own clothes, maintaining and fixing our homes, appliances and tools instead of relying on others to do this for us)." No. We still need computer chips, we still need pharmaceuticals. The response to the crisis is not to return to agrarian society. It's to consume less, and to build an economic system that rewards - instead of punishes - reductions in consumption. "It will require us to live more modestly, and within our means. It will be a much different world." Yes. But that means more intelligently relying on others, and not relying only on ourselves.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Mar 28, 2024 06:15 a.m.

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