Reconciling the Economics of Social Equity and Environmental Sustainability

Poverty cannot be ended by overall economic growth for two reasons. First, growth is becoming increasingly uneconomic, especially in affluent countries. That is, the costs of growth now approximate or exceed its benefits. Second, poverty is partly a relative matter, and growth cannot help this. The costs of reducing poverty should be taken from rents collected on the contributions of nature, which should be the common property of all.