GDP tells us the cost of everything, and the value of nothing.
These are the words of the Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, denouncing the metric of GDP as the sole indicator of economic success. This intuition is exceptional from an institution so deeply ingrained within the global economic order, and hints at a wider rift even within traditional economic thought with growth at its fundamental core.
Today, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a leading objective of economic policy. Once a descriptive measurement of aggregate demand, GDP has transformed into a dog chasing its own tail. GDP growth, it is said, is the only cure for an economy plagued by a cost-of-living crisis and pervasive poverty; the fact it must always increase, and at an accelerating pace, is treated as a ubiquitous economic fact. For decision-makers to argue otherwise would be political suicide. Yet many economists, natural scientists, and community organisers are beginning to question this logic. These critiques have emerged at a moment when the toxic relationship between economic growth and ecological exploitation has become almost impossible to ignore, and Gen-Z may be driving a paradigm shift that moves our economies beyond growth.
The Lost Generation
The fallout from the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has been central to the malaise of Gen-Z. To stabilise the financial system that was “too-big-to-fail,” the UK Government bailed out banks to the tune of £137 billion of taxpayer money. The reaction from consecutive Conservative Governments to this significant rise in the national debt was to implement fourteen years of violent austerity, ultimately in line with the economic principles of neoliberalism. Most austerity campaigns around the world were legitimised in the name of protecting ‘growth,’ with even the notion of ‘expansionary austerity’ popular for a fleeting moment. This seems laughable today – cuts to public services and local council budgets, lacking opportunities for youth, and diminishing working conditions have left Gen-Z in a worse state relative to their parents and grandparents. An increasingly rotten hand is passed down from generation to generation. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, nearly one-third of children are currently in poverty in the UK, and the proportion of those in ‘deep poverty’ is rising.
Third spaces for young people have also crumbled under austerity. Since 2010, over 1,200 youth centres have closed down, leaving a ‘lost generation’ of youth that has no access to safe spaces. Despite the end to nominal austerity, the election of Labour has not brought a radical vision to repair the UK, and instead Rachel Reeves has tighter laced the fiscal corset of her Conservative predecessors. This has left tight fiscal headroom to deal with the most pressing challenges facing the youth today. Faced with this accumulating inequality, Gen-Z are becoming much more critical of the values that govern our economy, and who those values ultimately serve.
A Generation Beyond Growth
The GFC has also inspired political momentum, creating fertile ground for movements away from mainstream economic thinking. Through the crisis, the instability of “growth at all costs,” has unravelled. From this, a post-growth movement had accelerated, calling into question our basic economic conception of growth. The voices of people let down by the system erupted and called into question our policy priorities. They emphasise the need to tackle growing inequality and focus on metrics of socio-ecological wellbeing instead. To do this, society has to reorientate our economy’s purpose. The need for change has never been greater – according to ecologists, our planet has already gone beyond six of the nine planetary boundaries that keep our planet in a healthy condition.
This mistrust of our core institutions has trickled down from these movements to younger generations who bear the lot the system provides them, and now question this system as given. This can be represented by the rising sentiment of anti-consumerism; experimenting with slower and more circular ways of living. Thrifting and second-hand shopping is becoming a social norm, which although it has questionable ecological impact and does not necessarily do away with the underlying imperative of endless consumption, has still influenced the culture of Gen-Z towards being more climate-conscious. Further, social media has provided an informal space for democracy and discourses outside the bounds of the political mainstream. Ideas that unveil the unfairness of our current economic system have attained much more popularity through these channels when contrasted with complacent traditional media.
Gen-Z’s alienation with the system is only exacerbated by the wider threat of ecological collapse, where our generation will bear the most harmful consequences. Instead of our generation having a seat at the table, climate policy is guided by fossil fuel giants. When over two-thirds of this generation are anxious about the environment, Gen-Z have shown deep desire to tackle the climate crisis that they are set to inherit. While this currently may be largely expressed in the language of consumerism, it still threatens the narrative of growth for growth’s sake.
These developments have coincided with the rising popularity of accessible post-growth literature. Works in this field include Less is More by Jason Hickel, or Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth. Although still not part of the explicit language of the political left in the UK, these ideas have motivated a surge in polling of left-wing environmentally-oriented parties outside the economic mainstream. In the UK, the Green Party has risen from polling at 5% to beating the Labour party at by-elections within party polling within a period of 3 years, and this growth is largely driven by younger voters. According to the latest polling by YouGov (2nd March 2026), 49% of voters aged 18-24 intend to vote for the Green Party
The Shifting Paradigm
This isn’t all theoretical. Post-growth policies are becoming more and more common within government. Local governments especially have begun to do the hard work. Amsterdam, for instance, has incorporated doughnut economics into the policy process, and is aiming towards a fully circular economy by 2040. Here in Scotland, Parliament has just passed the Community Wealth Building Bill. Although still susceptible to the language of growth, the Bill aims to keep wealth circular and local, improving workers’ conditions in tandem. Empowering the community through increasing communal ownership over assets (such as renewable energy), the bill diversifies economic well-being beyond the metric of GDP, and recognises the interdependency of social and ecological health. Clear, tangible, steps have thus clearly been taken in the right direction.
Students are also central to this shift within Gen-Z. Personally, I still remember the first Fridays for Future campaign set off by Greta Thunberg, a role-model for climate activism for our generation. A thousand pupils in my school came together for climate justice, just like students from over 150 countries around the world. In higher education following the GFC, an international movement of students unsatisfied with the abstract and narrow focus of their economics education founded Rethinking Economics. This organisation seeks to challenge status-quo economic teaching and principles, instead fighting for a pluralist education incorporating decolonial critiques and post-growth concepts. There are now hundreds of local Rethinking Economics chapters in educational institutions around the world challenging dominant perspectives. Out of this, many universities have developed new courses that incorporate a greater plurality of ideas.
Students are not alone in feeling this way – a recent survey found 73% of circa 800 leading climate policy researchers around the world reject ‘green growth’ positions. Despite this, these voices continue to be marginalised and excluded from power within public policy and education, especially within the economics discipline. As post-growth ideas become more popular, economics courses within educational institutions may also have to take on this paradigm shift towards placing the health of the planet and society at their core.
Will Gen-Z Lead the Way?
Current narratives of growth permeate throughout all areas of society, yet the post-growth movement is simply not backing down. Increasingly, local, national, and international governments' support for our present unsustainable economic collision course looks fragile.
To continue our exponential consumption of energy and natural resources, humanity needs at least 1.7 Earths. This is a luxury we do not have. With the persistent coupling of natural resource use and GDP growth, a post-growth world is non-negotiable.
Battered down by decades of austerity, the looming threat of climate catastrophe, and bleak hope for future opportunities, Gen-Z is growing up during an economic paradigm shift. The success of this shift is in our hands. Post-growth ideas, once denounced, have now made their way into the global agenda. Gen-Z is manifesting this change through their consumption and political views, and has become a generation denouncing growth at all costs for a wider understanding of social and ecological wellbeing that places the planet and equality at its heart.