The latest bad idea from the global policy class is dressed up as compassion: the world needs less growth. That may sell at international conferences. It should not sell in Kansas.
In a recent piece for the American Institute for Economic Research’s The Daily Economy, “The Poverty of the UN’s Degrowth Agenda,”? I explained why the push to move “beyond growth” would leave people poorer, more dependent, and less free. Advocates talk about fairness and sustainability. The result is fewer jobs, less innovation, higher costs, and a smaller future for families trying to get ahead. Kansas does not need that mindset. It has already seen what slow growth does.
The 2026 Kansas Green Book? shows Kansas has ranked near the bottom since 1998 in private-sector job growth, private-sector wage growth, GDP growth, and domestic migration. That is not just a data problem. It is a dinner-table problem. When opportunity fades, people leave. Young workers look elsewhere. Businesses expand in states with lower costs and fewer barriers. Families stay only if the numbers still work.
Kansas has real strengths: productive land, capable workers, strong communities, energy resources, manufacturers, logistics advantages, and entrepreneurs who know how to create value. But those strengths can be wasted when the government makes it too expensive to live, hire, invest, and build.
Recent data show both promise and caution.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis? reported that Kansas had the fastest real GDP growth in the nation in the third quarter of 2025 at 6.5 percent annualized. Personal income grew 6.3 percent, also the fastest in the country. Production led the way, with agriculture playing a major role.
That was encouraging. But one strong quarter does not fix a long-term weakness.
The latest BEA first-quarter 2026 report? shows U.S. real GDP grew 2.1 percent annualized, while Kansas grew only 1.0 percent. Real GDP increased in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Kansas grew, but it trailed the national pace and remained far from the top performers.
Kansas can grow when people produce more. But it will not sustain growth if policymakers keep accepting high costs, weak competitiveness, and too much government.
Farmers need lower costs and fewer policy shocks. Manufacturers need reliable energy and a better tax climate. Small businesses need less red tape. Families need property taxes that do not punish them for staying in their homes.
As I wrote in “Kansas Has a Cost Problem,”? the state collects and spends too much for the results it delivers. Every dollar spent by the government first comes from someone who earned it. There is no free lunch in Topeka. There is only a bill shifted to taxpayers, consumers, property owners, or future generations.
Kansas should start with a responsible budget that grows no faster than population growth plus inflation. Americans for Tax Reform’s Sustainable Budget Project? shows how much room Kansas could have created for lasting tax relief if spending had followed that simple limit over the last decade.
That is not austerity. It is discipline.
Kansas should also stop mistaking subsidies for strategy. Ribbon cuttings make good headlines, but favored deals rarely make good economics. As I argued in “Subsidies Cost Kansans Even When Revenues Rise,”? every special deal has an opportunity cost. Money used to privilege one company cannot be used to lower rates for everyone.
That matters for agriculture, energy, housing, manufacturing, and technology. Kansas should welcome investment, but with a clear rule: pay your way. Do not ask families and existing businesses to subsidize politically connected projects.
Growth built on favoritism is fragile. Growth “planned” by a policymaker from any political party is no growth at all. Growth built on freedom lasts.
The poverty of the degrowth agenda is that it treats prosperity as something to ration instead of something to unleash. Kansas should reject that error in every form.
Kansas can drift, or Kansas can lead. But it will not lead by producing less, taxing more, subsidizing favorites, or accepting average results.
