Limitarianism
We all notice when the poor get poorer: when there are more rough sleepers and food bank queues start to grow. But if the rich become richer, there is nothing much to see in public and, for most of us, daily life doesn't change. Or at least, not immediately.
In this astonishing, eye-opening intervention, world-leading philosopher and economist Ingrid Robeyns exposes the true extent of our wealth problem, which has spent the past fifty years silently spiralling out of control. In moral, political, economic, social, environmental and psychological terms, she shows, extreme wealth is not only unjustifiable but harmful to us all - the rich included.
In place of our current system, Robeyns offers a breathtakingly clear alternative: limitarianism. The answer to so many of the problems posed by neoliberal capitalism - and the opportunity for a vastly better world - lies in placing a hard limit on the wealth that any one person can accumulate. Because nobody deserves to be a millionaire. Not even you.
Ingrid Robeyns
Ingrid Robeyns holds master's degrees in economics and philosophy, and obtained her PhD at Cambridge University under the supervision of Amartya Sen. She currently holds the Chair in Ethics of Institutions at Utrecht University. Over the last nine months, Ingrid Robeyns has joined forces with Patriotic Millionaires International, the New Economics Foundation, Oxfam, the Inequalities Institute and Center for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the LSE, and the Good Ancestor Movement to develop an initiative addressing the harms of extreme wealth with the concept of an Extreme Wealth Line, a proposed counterpart to the Extreme Poverty Line.
Jonathan Wolff
Jonathan Wolff FBA is a British philosopher. He is a Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy and Public Policy and Governing Body Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. He was formerly the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford.
