it doesn't seem like he has much of a handle on what proponents of degrowth are actually arguing
His argument is actually that the degrowthers don't understand what their own position actually is:
degrowth unwittingly endorses what would be an imposition of austerity on the Western working class far beyond anything a Thatcher, Cameron or May could imagine, this time in the name of the planet.
That article doesn't do anything to dispel my suspicions that he has no idea what he's talking about.
The most egregious aspects of the article were addressed in Jason Hickel's response to Milanovic. I think it's funny that he's citing a World Bank economist for a major chunk of his article given that the World Bank's position is that we can grow our way out of global poverty (it'll only take 200 more years!) and currently defines the threshold of extreme poverty at $770 per year, so it's a little bit hard to take the argument that $5,500 is unacceptable (even if that were the degrowth position, which it is not) with a straight face.
His argument is actually that the degrowthers don't understand what their own position actually is:
That article doesn't do anything to dispel my suspicions that he has no idea what he's talking about.
The most egregious aspects of the article were addressed in Jason Hickel's response to Milanovic. I think it's funny that he's citing a World Bank economist for a major chunk of his article given that the World Bank's position is that we can grow our way out of global poverty (it'll only take 200 more years!) and currently defines the threshold of extreme poverty at $770 per year, so it's a little bit hard to take the argument that $5,500 is unacceptable (even if that were the degrowth position, which it is not) with a straight face.
As far as the argument for decoupling goes, the evidence is that to the extent that it's happening, it isn't fast enough.