New Idea on Economics: De-Growth and the era of Post Dev.

I bumped into the book at a store titled "will it be possible to develop socially without economical growth?" in Japanese.

As I saw the title, I posed for second and gave it a thought.
"hmm, well, how a society can "develop" without economical expansion? A society is not a charity,
and everyone wants to make money at certain level (in fact, we NEED to). "

As for me, an inexpert to economics, it did not seem to work. It seemed to skip some of the fundamental
preconditions as well as the basic characteristics of human;
 People are greedy.
 People are lazy.
 People are stupid.
...well, not everything applies to all of people. But there are SOME of them always.
And Sometimes, SOME of them may really do something...

Serge Latouche, is an emeritus professor at the University of Paris-Sud.
His idea of economics talks of "de-growth".　

According to his theory, there is need to stop demanding for "growth" of economy and/or society
in current scheme, which resulted global tendency to pursuit "productivity" and "efficiency".

Since there is no end to the productivity and efficiency pursuit, and that pursuit will likely to result
the economical gap. As per the focus area of Latouche, south-north problem is a major issue.

Latouche introduces a 8R program in which to "de-grow". Here are bullets;

1. Re-evaluate
2. Re-conceptualize
3. Re-structure
4. Re-distribute
5. Re-localize
6. Re-duce
7. Re-utilize
8. Re-cycle

In short, Latouche's proposal is based on LOHAS (lifestyle of health and sustainability).
I could not see anything further than that. However, I am still pending on the judgment whether
it is a good idea or not. 

Here are some articles on line available;
Would the West actually be happier with less? The world downscaled
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/27/081.html
De-growth: an electoral stake?
http://www.inclusivedemocracy.org/journal/vol3/vol3_no1_Latouche_degrowth.htm

Anyway, I got to learn some of basic economics...to tell whether this is good or bad ):
Gotta too much going on...

BTW... Manix. I was listening to this song while reading the book... I dont know why. Still a good song though.