The hopelessness of inequality

For all the talk of organising society and imagining new ways of living all hope breaks down, as far as I am concerned, when faced with the fact those who need to change are the rich (people and countries).

Capitalism has clear winners and losers. The winners disproportionately are to blame for the climate crisis and the less privileged majority is disproportionately suffering the consequences.

An Oxfam study found that the carbon emissions of the richest Americans were 10 times higher than that of their Chinese counterparts.

To make matters worse, not only do a majority of us aspire to live the lives of the rich, inequality also erodes social cohesion — a necessary condition for people to commit to much needed collective action.

This means that the responsibility to cut carbon emissions must be primarily shouldered by the rich nations and the richest 10% of the population across the world. The consumption habits of the rich will need a major altering and I cannot imagine a scenario where the rich will willingly submit to curbing their lifestyles.