Economy

The short, natural experiment we all witnessed reinforces that SNAP is the nation’s first line of defense against hunger and food insecurity and food pantries can only be a secondary and supplemental source of food. Food pantries and food banks cannot substitute for a robust, reliable, government-funded food safety net.

The proposal for Degrowth calls for an intentional downscaling of the global economy to achieve both ecological sustainability and social justice. A degrowth transition would help ensure that ecological practices actually displace destructive ones, and that the savings from efficiency measures are truly saved.

So, what have we got? A global economy staggering amongst geopolitical tension, a bubble to beat all bubbles, and the twin shocks of a (potentially permanent) oil price crash and the EV subsidies ending — and all with the backdrop of worsening climate change driving up inflation and inflicting constant disasters.

Electricity is our energy future, but the details of that future are still sketchy. Right now, the picture is being drawn by billionaire investors, but it looks dark and dystopian. Surely more imaginative artists could do better.

Solar panels will continue to work for decades. But soon enough societies will have to reproduce its energy resources, if you can’t do that, they are hardly renewable in the first place.

The frustration is reaching critical mass, and it will drive change. The question is what type, and direction, of change?