Great recommendation–I have Auzanneau’s book and plan to cite it in my own! I believe that social stability is a prerequisite for a massive, coordinated transition to a sustainable society, an unprecedented undertaking that a deep depression would likely block. Even as activists open political and cultural space for the transition, we must also maintain enough stability to make it possible. We should be wary of a catastrophe befalling a population unprepared to solve it. History shows that social movements have advanced democracy in significant ways–a mass movement with a full analysis of the root causes of inequality and ecological collapse might be capable of bringing about a new society.

Thanks Mike! I think we are in agreement. Wealth inequality arises from structural factors like the concentrated ownership of economic institutions, the tax code, and the degree to which our society provides public goods. I believe those structural factors remain unchanged for several reasons, one of which is a lack of moral clarity about the unequal distribution of ownership and wealth. If it was common sense that no one can truly deserve to have such vast wealth, then elites would have more trouble attacking efforts to establish limits on consumption/accumulation that aim to preserve the natural world.