Inequality threatens people and planet alike. Billions struggle to make ends meet while a tiny minority grows fabulously wealthy. At the same time, the conspicuous consumption of the wealthy and the waste they generate takes an enormous environmental toll. The intertwining of social and environmental damage suggests that standard fixes for inequality are inadequate.
Herman Daly thought that waste from the wealthy could not be ended through redistributive taxation alone. Only by “pre-distribution,” that is, by preventing wealth from inordinately accumulating in the first place, can we rein in the pollution and power of the wealthiest one percent.
CASSE has set an ambitious goal of advancing policy in this area as part of its Steady State Economy Act project. The project charts a new legislative path for economic policy in the USA. Its first product is the “Forty-to-One Act,” which is designed to set income boundaries in the USA.
In Beyond Growth, Herman Daly observed that because there is “a limit to the total material production that the ecosystem can support,” it would be “unjust for 99 percent of the
— source steadystate.org | Daniel Wortel-London | Jun 8, 2023