From Utopia to Blueprint: How I Discovered Post-Growth Economics Is Within Reach
Introduction: The Old Me
Three months ago, I thought the most meaningful contribution I could make with my knowledge was to imagine a better world — to write the utopia for the third millennium. Post-growth economics, at the time, seemed like a fringe ideology at best, a radical call to abandon civilization at worst. I associated it with environmental extremism, anti-capitalist rhetoric, and a vaguely noble but ultimately unrealistic desire to return to the forest and hug trees. And I do hug trees. But I also want my forever smartphone, a reliable internet, and the comforts of modern life — and I assumed that wanting both was inherently contradictory.
The Turning Point
Then something changed. I started reading, listening, and connecting ideas that had always been floating around in the background but never quite clicked. It wasn’t a single article or manifesto that did it. It was a cascade. Post-growth thinking — in particular, the kind now emerging in the wake of thinkers like Tim Jackson, Kate Raworth, and those working on degrowth and doughnut economics — turned out not to be about abandoning civilization, but about rescuing it. And more than that, the theory behind it was surprisingly elegant and grounded. It didn’t require us to start over. It didn’t even require mass austerity. What it offered was something much simpler: a series of clear, actionable tweaks to how we legislate, measure, and incentivize progress.
The Simplicity of the Theory
As it turns out, we don’t need to demolish capitalism overnight or eliminate all forms of growth. We need to correct the distortion in what we call "growth" — to shift our values away from extractive expansion and toward sustainable prosperity. The idea is simple: mandate repairability and durability in consumer goods, progressively tax monopolized intellectual property and reinvest it into the commons, reclaim public access to real estate and essential services, and begin to value care work, maintenance, and planetary boundaries as foundational to a thriving economy. That’s it. The tools are already here. The framework is technically sound. The politics — while not easy — are far from impossible.
This realization was both electrifying and humbling. I didn’t need to write a grand science fiction novel to communicate what a good future could look like. I just had to recognize that the path was already sketched, and what was needed now was advocacy, translation, and demonstration. Even more encouraging: due to what’s known as the “Brussels Effect,” many of these legislative shifts — especially if passed in the EU — have the potential to ripple globally. Europe, with its multi-party systems and less ideological resistance to the idea of the commons, is uniquely positioned to act as the legislative avant-garde.
The New Vision: Post-Growth as a Blueprint, Not a Dream
Today, when I think of post-growth, I no longer think of scarcity or sacrifice. I think of abundance — but an abundance redefined. Abundance of time, of public space, of access, of trust, and of tools that last. I think of robust public infrastructure and private enterprise aligned not to churn out the newest version every year, but to build things that endure. This is not about a return to a mythical past. It’s about stepping fully into the future — one where our civilization matures, shedding its adolescent obsession with infinite expansion, and learning instead to cultivate and maintain what truly matters.
This shift in perspective has changed how I approach my own work. Where once I imagined the need for sweeping cultural change, I now see something more incremental and pragmatic: the gradual alignment of law, design, and public imagination. The dream isn’t dead — it’s just grown up. And I think many others are ready to grow up with it.
Why Sharing This Matters
So I’ll keep writing. And you should start too — because every evolution of society begins with an evolution of our shared stories. I’ll reference and critique works like Abundance: What Progress Takes, not because they are perfect, but precisely because they are not. They participate in the opening of the conversation. We don’t need to agree on everything to move forward — we need to question, refine, and synthesize.
I’m ready to move from utopian dreaming to blueprint-building — and I invite others to join.
🦣 Find me and discuss this on Mastodon: @thilosch@mastodon.social