The Poverty of Growth | Olivier De Schutter

Obsession with growth is enriching elites and killing the planet. Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and author of The Poverty of Growth, joins us. Highlights include: Why poverty is about more than low income and how unequal economic growth creates greater social exclusion and status anxiety for the majority of people that growth leaves behind; How global trade practices benefit corporations over workers, especially in low-income countries, driving inequality and limiting worker protections; Why ‘green growth’ is a myth and that economic growth continues to be tied to both resource depletion and environmental damage; How the commodification of life drives consumption and inequality, with more services that were once free or communal now privatized, creating a need for income rather than creating greater wellbeing; How adopting norms of sufficiency could shift economies to focus on collective wellbeing and fair resource distribution over perpetual growth. See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript:  https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/olivier-de-schutter ABOUT US OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast] OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.  Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.  Learn more at populationbalance.org  Copyright 2025 Population Balance