Destroy the planet for the sake of the very rich? A plea for fair distribution as common sense

Abstract

This paper will address from a peculiar point of view the key issue -raised today by Greta Thunberg and her peers- of the unlimited economic growth in a limited planet. It is its aim to point out how a relentless growth, while entailing dramatic ecological consequences in terms both of resources’ consumption/destruction and of climate change, contrary to a common perception does not benefit everybody. In contrast, because of the unequal distribution of GDP and wealth that is largely driven by the legal systems such as politically shaped, it benefits only the very rich. This new understanding should finally lead the vast majority of us to stop asking for an unlimited growth and to join Greta Thunberg in her protest, calling for something different, namely a less unequal redistribution of what we have via different legal rules. Why in fact should we destroy the planet, such as weneed it for our survival, just to make the very wealthy even more affluent?