Sufficiency is all you need

"Enough" is a powerful word in times of escalating crisis. We've had enough of pandemics, fires, droughts, floods, poverty, alienation, exploitation, violence, genocide, and ecocide. It's a call to change direction and embrace a wiser, more just system —one that meets essential needs and harmonizes our ambitions with the material world, rather than waging war against it.

People voting both for the left and the far right share a notion of "enough", although their interpretations differ significantly. Yet both sides call for change, demanding a new way of conducting politics and organizing society. The critical distinction lies in trust: one believes in collective solutions, the other trusts only his/her paid work to overcome our shared failure of entrusting our future and well-being to capitalism and ad hoc justice.

Mainstream media reinforces the visions of economic darwinism and struggle to communicate the desirability of sufficiency, as growth is deeply embedded in our social structures and minds. As a result, the idea of degrowth is portrayed as radical—akin to communism or socialism.

This is not accidental. Capitalism faces profound contradictions when confronted with the politics of enough. Productivity gains under sufficiency would lead to reduced working hours, less overproduction, and greater distribution, forcing capital to accept stable profits. Such stability contradicts capitalism’s inherent drive—not merely profit, but maximum and constantly increasing profit.

Yet, for the 99% who aren't significant capital holders—despite some members of a declining middle class believing otherwise—a politics of sufficiency offers clear benefits.

In a system oriented around sufficiency, increased productivity and surplus can be reinvested into regenerative practices, reduced working hours, raised wages, or lower prices, enabling beneficial products and services to reach more people. Sufficiency emphasizes meeting genuine needs through beautiful, regenerative solutions rather than commodifying what was previously free. Here, financial sustainability supports meaningful activities rather than serving as an end to appease those who privately create and profit from money.

Sufficiency-driven production aims for democratically-defined goals, not abstract growth figures. Such organizations produce more when there's genuine need, not merely because they can or to capture greater market share. The sole objective is to secure and enhance our collective well-being.

Jobs rooted in sufficiency are secure because they form the foundation of a decent, fulfilling life. They allow us to spend time on what truly matters: mutual care, relationships, and celebrating life's gifts. Nothing more, nothing less.

Now that we have come to a point where we had 'enough' crises, it is time we start rethinking the way we want to live together as humanity, and where our priorities lie. I envision sufficiency and enoughness as a healthy body, a generous soul, a wise mind, and a patient heart. If we move beyond capitalism's addictions to exploitation and endless growth, we can embrace the possibilities inherent in sufficiency. Constraints arising from rejecting unwanted excesses are not limitations but liberations. In reality, it's our endless pursuit of careers, consumption, and distractions that oppress us. Genuine wealth comes from collective abundance and individual sobriety—not from exploiting ourselves and others because we are addicted to more. The time for an ontology and politics of "enough” has arrived. Until it becomes mainstream, I'll call it ecosocialism.

Photo credit: Jon Tyson

References:

- D'Alisa, G., Demaria, F., & Kallis, G. (Eds.). (2014). Degrowth: A Vocabulary for a New Era. Routledge.

- Graeber, D. (2011). Debt: The First 5000 Years. Melville House.

- Hickel, J. (2020). Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World. Penguin Random House.

- Jackson, T. (2009). Prosperity Without Growth: Economics for a Finite Planet. Routledge.

- Kallis, G. (2018). Degrowth. Agenda Publishing.

- Kallis, G., Paulson, S., D’Alisa, G., & Demaria, F. (2020). The Case for Degrowth. Polity Press.

- Kovel, J. (2007). The Enemy of Nature: The End of Capitalism or the End of the World? Zed Books.

- Latouche, S. (2009). Farewell to Growth. Polity Press.

- Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist. Chelsea Green Publishing.

- Schneider, F., Kallis, G., & Martinez-Alier, J. (2010). Crisis or opportunity? Economic degrowth for social equity and ecological sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 18(6), 511-518.