Degrowth refers to a policy that focuses on economic and social metrics such as life expectancy, health, education, housing, and ecologically sustainable work. It argues that economic growth measured by GDP should be abandoned as a policy objective.

The focus of this website is on balancing demand and supply in an economic model based on the degrowth philosophy. The main focus is to identify the calculations necessary to align production with needs.

The primary aims are:

• Everyone receives what they need to live a pleasant life.
• The work is distributed equally among those who are able to work.
• There are no major differences in remuneration. There are no extremely wealthy individuals, and there are no extremely poor individuals.

Although it may seem like a utopia, it is exactly what the world needs.

Obvious limits are 'You do not want to produce more than what is needed' and 'You do not want to produce less than what is needed'. Other limits are imposed by the risks of natural disasters like wildfires, flooding and failed harvests and man inflicted disasters from accidents to wars.

Dream

I dream of creating a scheduling program. The goal of this program is to ensure everyone receives what they need and to reduce unemployment.

The input for the program is a collection of individuals, tools, stocks, resources. All the individuals have certain wishes: a solid house, each day enough food, opportunities for education, responsible health-care, whatever they need. All the individuals have certain skills. Hopefully they all speak a common language. One is a carpenter. Another one is a plumber. Someone else is a teacher. Whatever. Each wish corresponds to work to be executed in order to fulfill that wish. Work is presented in terms of production processes. A production process is a graph, consisting of vertices and edges. Each task in a production process corresponds to a vertex. An edge (or an arrow) indicates that one task can only be started after the completion of another task. Each task requires a number of workers. Each worker must possess certain skills.

In order to fulfill all wishes, the program starts by determining which production processes must be started based on the wishes of individuals and the available resources. This collection of production processes contains many tasks. The program determines which individuals can serve as worker for each task, matching their skills with the skills needed for each task. From all the different possibilities for this allocation, the program chooses the one in which every person works for the same amount of time.

This is a succinct description of the dream.

My dreaming experiences become more complex as I become aware of more and more aspects. I observe individuals working in diverse locations. Time becomes a factor in play. I observe a range of wishes that appear and then vanish. I imagine disasters where all wishes change or get another priority immediately. I see people working together in organizations. I see a tangle of organizations that collaborate in various ways. Remuneration comes to mind. What is the maximum difference in rewards between individuals? Which education or responsibility leads to a high salary? The question arises, what values do we assign to all products? The best suggestion I've heard is to assign a value to every product that corresponds to the number of hours it took to make it.

A contrived example

Let's start with a contrived example. Imagine 4 people: Adrian, Bob, Charlotte and Daniel. Adrian is able to make product A, Bob has the skills to produce product B, Charlotte is very good in making product C and Daniel likes to make product D.

Adrian indicates he would like to have product D, Bob wants product A, Charlotte says she wants product B, Daniel tells he would like to have product C.

How can they make everyone happy? There is only one solution: Adrian makes product A for Bob. Bob makes product B for Charlotte. Charlotte makes product C for Daniel. Daniel makes product D for Adrian.

We get a circular structure:

Let's assume that it takes Adrian 3 hours to make product A, it takes Bob 2 hours to make product B, it takes Charlotte 5 hours to make product C and it takes Daniel 1 hour to make produt D. We add these numbers to our circular structure.

We conclude that Charlotte works 5 hours to make Daniel happy, Adrian works 3 hours to make Bob happy, Bob works 2 hours to make Charlotte happy and Daniel works 1 hour to make Adrian happy.

I hope you'll agree that this is unfair. Charlotte has to work much longer than the others. Their goal is for everyone to work the same amount of time.

Let every one work the same number of hours

There are a variety of solutions that can be chosen. A solution could be education. Adrian, Bob, Charlotte and Daniel learn how to help eachother. Another solution is to change the production processes. Other tools could help them speed up lead times. Or a combination of education and changes to production processes could help them.

Let's assume that short-term technical innovation is not feasible. At present, our options are limited to education. The total working time is 5 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 11 hours. Since there are four people, working two and three quarters of an hour per person would result in a fairly divided workload (because 11 ÷ 4 = 2.75). As Bob and Daniel work less than 2.75 hours, they are to be educated to help Charlotte and Adrian. Since Bob and Daniel work less than 2.75 hours, they are the first to be eligible to take over work from Charlotte and Adrian. The work to the right of the black vertical line in the following illustration must be delegated to Bob and Daniel.

If we were able to educate Bob to do Charlottes job, and educate Daniel to do Adrians and Charlottes job, we could transfer some work of Charlotte to Bob and Daniel.

The red arrow represents that a part of Charlotte's work is being transferred to Bob. As Charlotte was asked to make product C, Bob will work on product C during three quarters. The green arrow shows that a part of the work of Charlotte is transferred to Daniel. Daniel will work on product C during an hour and a half. Daniel is also scheduled to work on product D for 45 minutes. You can see in the picture that the employees will work the same number of hours, but not which products they work on.

Let's incorporate the colored arrows into the circular scheme.

We alter the colors of the arrows.

As seen from the individuals in red rectangles, blue arrows mean working and green ones mean receiving. For each red rectangle, the hours at the blue arrows add up to the total number of hours the individual has to work. Since all individuals have to work the same number of hours, this number equals 2¾ hours at each red rectangle. For each yellow rectangle, the sum of the number of hours at the blue arrows is equal to the number of hours required to make the product.

Is the proposed solution feasible?

So far, nothing has been said about the nature of products A, B, C and D. Daniel may be happy that he can take part in something that is solely for himself. But perhaps Daniel had asked if someone could babysit his children. So product C could be a nanny job. It is now proposed that D take on an hour and a half of that task. In fact, this means that Daniel's request is not honored. The question is whether Daniel can live with that.
Furthermore, nothing is known about how products A, B, C and D are made. Perhaps making product C can be divided into three tasks that can be performed simultaneously. And Bob, Charlotte and Daniel can get started simultaneously. But perhaps that is not possible at all, given the nature of the work. Then Bob, Charlotte and Daniel have to work on product C one after the other. Without such lack of information, the work cannot be scheduled yet.
But let's assume that proposed solution is feasible and all participants do agree.

Remuneration

It's possible that one activity demands more training than the other. You may have a higher degree of responsibility in one activity than in another. People often opt for higher education with the expectation of a higher salary. Also, it seems consistent with human psychology to give someone with a responsible job a greater reward. However, this is not entirely true. It is not uncommon for someone to put in effort for a purpose without expecting anything in return. What parents do for their children has nothing to do with the reward they receive in return.
We all agree that a reward should be proportional to the time spent working. The goal of this project is for everyone to get what they need. So the extra income concerns luxury products: a longer journey, a larger house, things you don't really need, but make life more pleasant. Let's suppose that everyone involved agrees that making products B and C deserves a higher reward than making products A and D. So working on products A and D yields things you really need. Working on products B and C yields things you really need plus the right to ask for some luxury products. Let's assume everyone involved is in agreement with the following: If you work an hour on products B and C, you can earn luxury goods that can be produced in one tenth of an hour. This leads to the picture shown below:

In tabular form:

	Product		Working hours		Income		Additional revenue
Adrian		A		2.75		2.75
Bob		B		2		2		0.2
		C		0.75		0.75		0.075
Charlotte		C		2.75		2.75		0.275
Daniel		A		0.25		0.25
		C		1.5		1.5		0.15
		D		1		1
				---------		---------		---------
Total				11		11		0.7

The number of hours required to make the products that everyone is entitled to is 11.7 hours. The actual amount of time worked is 11 hours. Let's add the activities needed to make the luxury products to the table. We list the steps involved in creating luxury goods with L. We want to adhere to the principle that everyone works for the same amount of time. So we divide the working time of 0.7 hours into four parts. Each part is assigned to a person in our problem.

	Product		Working hours		Income		Additional revenue
Adrian		A		2.75		2.75
		L		0.175		0.175
Bob		B		2		2		0.2
		C		0.75		0.75		0.075
		L		0.175		0.175
Charlotte		C		2.75		2.75		0.275
		L		0.175		0.175
Daniel		A		0.25		0.25
		C		1.5		1.5		0.15
		D		1		1
		L		0.175		0.175
				---------		---------		---------
Total				11.7		11.7		0.7

Everyone works 2.925 hours. Together they work 4 × 2.925 = 11.7 hours. The products produced are not distributed equally. Adrian receives everything he needs to live comfortably, but not more. Bob acquires all the necessary products to live comfortably, as well as some luxurious products, because he is working on a job that requires more education or responsibility. He assists in the production of product B for two hours. This entitles him to luxury products that can be made in 2 × 0.1 = 0.2 hours. Charlotte and Daniel are similarly entitled to luxury products.

Everyone works 2.75 + 0.1,75, which is 2.925 hours. As a red rectangle represents an individual, this is the sum of the number of hours associated with the blue arrows coming from a red rectangle. Everybody gets what he/she needs. This is represented bij the green arrows. Some people receive luxury products associated with the brown arrows. For yellow rectangles that correspond to making luxury products, the total amount of time needed to make the products is equal to the sum of the brown arrows that come from it. ( 0.7 is equal to 0.15 + 0.275 + 0.275 )

	Producing products that benefit the community			Creating luxury products			Getting the products each person needs			Getting luxury products
Adrian		2.75			0.175			1			0
Bob		2.75			0.175			3			0.275
Charlotte		2.75			0.175			2			0.275
Daniel		2.75			0.175			5			0.15

Everybody works the same number of hours. The distribution of products is done based on (1) the needs of each individual, (2) whether they require training for their work or (3) based on their responsibilities. It is conceivable that Adrian is in good health and has a regular job that does not necessitate exceptional training. Charlotte may be an intelligent disabled woman in a wheelchair who needs a lot of care, but she is capable of responsible work that demands high education. In that case a higher income for Charlotte may be appropriate because she necessitates more to live a happy life. Imagine a medical specialist who specializes in a very rare disease. The disease's rarity will make it impossible for him to use that knowledge in practice. Despite this, specialists are necessary due to the occasional occurrence of that disease. It appears fair to give the specialist a higher income solely on the basis of his education, not on the basis of his actual treatment of the disease.

Summary

The first artificial example demonstrates that it's feasible to determine if all members of a group can participate equally in a production process. Ideally, this will solve the problem of unemployment. It demonstrates that it is possible to reward individuals who achieve exceptional achievements, such as completing challenging training or taking on significant responsibility. It illustrates that there are various occasions when decisions must be made, and a fair democratic process is essential.

Towards a first model

In the previous contrived example, we used red and yellow rectangles.

We imagine these rectangles to be cards in a card catalog. We stack the cards.

We give each stack a name. On top of the stack, we put a card with the stack's name on it.

We call a pile of cards with similar data an entity. We now have two entity's: 'Person' and 'Production process'.

In order to create a more realistic model, we add multiple entities. First we introduce 'Education and Skills'. In order to be involved in a particular production process, an individual must have taken specific training courses and possess certain skills. The next entity we add to our model is 'Product'. Once again we see a circular structure. A person needs or desires a product. In order to make the product, a production process must be initiated.. The production process specifies the skills that the people involved in producing the product must possess. In order to produce the product, qualified personnel must be found.

Let's assume Jennie is included in the administration. Unfortunately Jennie is blind. Jennie has expressed her desire for a guide dog. The community has decided that blind individuals who wish to have a guide dog are free to do so. It is necessary for them to have a guide dog.

I have no idea how much time it takes to raise a guide dog. I have no idea how many instuctors, foster families, veterinarians and volunteers are involved. I'll make up something. The numbers will not be very realistic. I suppose the pup is born is born in the home of a breeder. Let's say his name is Jim. After about eight weeks, the mother dog's task is over. A breeding host family is where a puppy is born. A puppy then moves to a puppy host family. In our example Ben and Rebecca with their children Yuval and Sarah is the host family. Because young dogs have to learn everything, all puppy host families are well guided, and they can always contact instructors for questions about education. When the puppy is about one year old, it undergoes a medical examination. In this example Paul is the veterinarian. During the city evaluation, the instructor determines if the dog is ready for school training. For the first few weeks, the trainers take care of the young dog and guide him/her. If the dog completes the training, it will be paired with a client. After a match is made, the new couple undergoes an instruction period. During these days they can get used to each other and the boss learns how to work with the dog. Let's say the trainers are Lizzy and Mary.

We observed a circular pattern in the red arrows. Zooming in on the details reveals that it is a spiral structure. Jennie's wish for a guide dog brought us to raising and training a dog. The training of a guide dog necessitates specialized knowledge. We discovered that knowledge in a variety of individuals. Individuals like myself, you, and Jennie.

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