Degrowth
Etymology
A translation of the French "décroissance," which gained traction among European ecological economists in the 2000s. It rejects the premise that growth in output must keep rising, arguing that on a finite planet, rich nations should scale material throughput down while sustaining well-being.
noun · /dee-GROHTH/
A movement arguing that wealthy economies should deliberately shrink their resource and energy use rather than chase endless growth.
What it names
A genuine challenge to the assumption that more GDP is always the goal, reframing prosperity around sufficiency and ecological limits.
Example
Degrowth advocates argue that no amount of efficiency can reconcile infinite GDP growth with a finite planet.
Related idea
A direct counter to creative destruction, which celebrates growth through constant churn; degrowth questions whether more output should be the aim at all.