Sustaining society with ecological capitalism

Abstract

The research question is how to achieve a prosperous environmentally sustainable global society. The objective is incompatible with economic policies of full employment or of uninhibited use of non-renewable resources. Politically attractive incentives of smaller taxes are identified as a way of changing the way capitalistic economies operates by introducing ecological forms of owning and controlling realty, firms and money. Ecological capitalism facilitates increases in prosperity even with degrowth from a declining and aging population. Crucially, it introduces localisation in citizen ownership and control of the means of production and exchange to provide a basic minimum dividend income for all citizens. A basic income allows full employment policies to be replaced with policies of fulfillment in employment and/or leisure. The cost of welfare and the size of government reduced from the tax reductions creates the political incentive for change. Localisation also enriches democracy with the power for citizens to nurture their host environment. Increased life expectancy with depopulation is already occurring in over twenty countries and this is expected to spread globally in the current century. This phenomenon with current environmental degradation creates an imperative for introducing ecological capitalism as an answer to the research question sooner rather than later.