Mark Levin delivered a very thought provoking opening monologue on his Fox News show last night, articulating a point he made three years ago and discussed in his book American Marxism. In his monologue, Levin describes an effort on the part of the left to embrace policies meant to not only shrink the U.S. economy, but also to eventually push people into unbearable living conditions, if not outright primitivism. A reversal of the economic prosperity enjoyed since the Industrial Revolution.

De-growth is a social movement and it’s proposals are being pitched by some economists as the only way to combat climate change. What’s worse, they have major financial backing to accomplish their goals. An essay published two years ago at Quillette summarizes the effort and describes the de-growth movement as encouraging societies to literally reduce their economic wealth:

“This agenda requires that energy, housing, food, and other consumption costs steadily increase, or be legally prohibited so that ordinary people will be unable to eat meat regularly, use more energy, live in larger spaces, and travel freely.”

“There’s even a quaint notion that we need to return to a more primitive state of existence, essentially canceling out the progress of the last few centuries.”

“America’s Green Party, for example, would seek to limit long-distance trade entirely in favor of a feudal economy that is “largely self-sufficient in the production of its necessities.”

Slow growth, if not outright stagflation or economic contraction not only results in lower birth rates, but also results in social unrest. If Sri Lanka and Ghana are any indication, that is exactly what de-growthers want. You can watch the relevant portion of Mark Levin’s opening monologue below.