"Even popular culture sometimes promotes this apocalyptic degrowth mindset to children. ...
"Not only is the embrace of degrowth misguided, but research suggests that this doomsday mindset is causing widespread anxiety in young people. ... [T]hat anxiety is international: A study from 2021, surveying 10,000 children and young people aged 16–25 in 10 countries, found that 59 percent of respondents were very or extremely worried about climate change, and more than 45 percent of respondents said those feelings negatively affected daily life and basic functioning.
Human beings have the unique ability to innovate their way out of problems, creating technological solutions that benefit both people and the planet. Unfortunately, children today are often bombarded with messages of an impending apocalypse that can only be warded off by lowering living standards and embracing 'degrowth'...
"Instead of rushing to solutions that require lowering living standards via coercive government mandates or expensive taxpayer-funded subsidies, we should focus on the freedom to make technological advances that raise our standard of living while also mitigating environmental harm. An advantage of that approach is that it may also improve the mental health of young people..."
~ Chelsea Follett from her post 'The Kids Need Optimism, Not Doom and Degrowth'
2 comments:
How true this comment is. What saddens me is how much the young are hated, particularly by members of the boomer generation (not exclusively but unfortunately it's a majority).
I think it's returned in spades. I have three Gen-Z kids and they've shown me some of their social media sites. The hatred of Boomers if off the charts and its across the West - and just one aspect is the respect given to the Depression/WWII-era generation against which the Boomers rebelled. Gen-Z holds the former in far higher regard their spawn.
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