Justice, Limits to Growth, and an Equilibrium State

Abstract

This Article is particularly relevant to global warming because it argues that concerns for distributive justice must be shifted to address the concept of a maximum income in a world where limits to growth, like depletion of basic resources or pollution at a "catastrophic level," reduce or eliminate our capacity for economic growth. Discussions of distributive justice often focus on people at the lower end of the distributive spectrum. For example, the goal may be to provide a floor or minimum level below which no member of society will fall. So long as this minimum is satisfied, there is little, if any, concern with imposing a ceiling or a maximum level which no one may exceed, since it is implicitly assumed that there is no limit to economic growth. However, the focus of concern shifts if one reverses this assumption and adopts the limits-to-growth thesis that the earth cannot continue to sustain exponential growth in production and to absorb exponential increases in pollution. These limits require that society deliberately restrict growth by adopting an equilibrium or controlled-growth strategy. Such an arrangement would involve the adoption of a ceiling on social consumption, and this social limit might also involve individual limits. Since an equilibrium strategy is the equivalent of a maximum social "consumption" strategy, the central task of this Article will be the development of a theory concerning just consumption maximums both for society and individuals.

Keywords: Global warming, limits to growth, John Rawls, Rawls, liberalism, distributive justice, justice