Vol. 3 No. 2 (2019)
Peer Reviewed Articles

Environment, poverty and the steady state economy

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  • Theodore Lianos
Theodore Lianos
Athens University of Economics and Business
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This image of the cover of this issue of The Journal of Population and Sustainability has the title in block letters on a grey-green background.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2019.3.2.55

Published 2019-06-01

Keywords

  • ecological balance,
  • overpopulation,
  • income inequality,
  • steady state economy

How to Cite

Lianos, Theodore. 2019. “Environment, Poverty and the Steady State Economy”. The Journal of Population and Sustainability 3 (2):55–78. https://doi.org/10.3197/jps.2019.3.2.55.

Copyright (c) 2019 Theodore Lianos

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

Environmental degradation and inequality of income and wealth are two major global problems at the present time. This paper suggests that a steady state economy offers solutions for both problems. It argues that if the world population is drastically reduced and remains constant at a low level ecological balance can be achieved and, at the same time, income distribution will be greatly improved. The basis of this argument is that a smaller population will reduce the use of natural resources for production and consumption and at the same time reduce the supply of labor and thus increase wages. Also, a brief review of the idea of the steady state economy from the ancient philosophers to modern writers is provided.

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