The tension towards growth is biological: children, plants and all living organisms grow. Growth cannot and should not pose a problem, if one can avoid a pattern of aggressive, financial, and non-sustainable development.
“Linked to that of prosperity” states Francesco Morace in Crescita felice. Percorsi di futuro civile, “the concept of growth expresses the responsible hope for the construction of a better future, released from the linear and material progression of our living standards, that are no longer sustainable”.

And if the partial view of a happy degrowth proposes a correct diagnosis, showing the inadequacy of the current development model, but the wrong treatment, made up of a retreating nostalgia for a better and frugal past, instead happy growth leverages dynamics that are compatible with the common good: feeds off a circular economy, promotes generative relationships, and activates social magnetism.
In this perspective consumption is also, revolutionary, liberating, evolutionary when combined with a sustainable and shared vision of the world, it proves to be a vital and happy occasion. This is the assumption that the further one moves away from demonizing ideologies; the more one is unable to grasp the undeniable elements of freedom of a consumer society, which plays against the fanatical view of those who fight it. Consumption becomes a happy practice if it becomes the metronome of a relationship between men, if it facilitates and enables the social recognition without necessarily constituting the only or even the most important key identity. Moreover: consumption allows for the free movement of goods and constitutes an important pillar for circular economies, freeing itself from the infamous brand of commodification.

Crescimento Feliz – percurso para o futuro da economia
by: Francesco Morace
Publisher: Estação das Letras e Cores Editora (June 2015)
Language: Portuguese