Equality as an ingredient for a post-growth world
(2023) Transformative Ideas - Ensuring a Just Share of Progress for All — ISBN: [978-2-87452-673-2], p. 81-82, published
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- Abstract
- It is generally assumed that the increase of monetary wealth, or GDP, is essential both to poverty reduction and to the ecological transformation: it is by growing the size of the pie that the State would be able to support low-income households, by combining progressive taxation with social policies, and to make the necessary investments for environmentally sustainable future. This paper argues for a different approach. It suggests that the persistence of wealth and income inequalities is incompatible with ecological transformation, and that, in the search for a new eco-social contract, it is the fight against inequalities, rather than growth followed by redistribution of its outcomes, should take priority. First, in affluent societies, poverty should be understood as relative and not as absolute: therefore, the fight against poverty should be less about growing the pie to ensure resources can be mobilized to combat extreme destitution, than about redistributing the wealth and resources that we already have. Secondly, growth is not only less necessary than usually presumed; it can also be counterproductive, in the sense that the general rise of affluence creates new needs and therefore new instances of deprivation. Third, growing inequalities result in certain major economic actors being able to exercise a disproportionate influence on political decision-making, allowing them to veto the boldest reforms if they perceive such reforms as going against their interests. Fourth, because of the links between inequality and consumption patterns, any pathway towards resource-efficient and low-carbon societies that incorporates lifestyle changes must include addressing inequalities as a key component.
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Citations
De Schutter, O., Kate Pickett, & Richard Wilkinson. (2023). Equality as an ingredient for a post-growth world. In K. Arabadjieva, N. Countouris, B. Luna Fabris and W. Zwysen (eds) (ed.), Transformative Ideas - Ensuring a Just Share of Progress for All (p. p. 81-82). European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).