Capitalism and the Environment

A Proposal to Save the Planet

Shi-Ling Hsu

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781108474825
• eBook ISBN: 9781108636087
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Law Theory & Practice
• Index: Law

Rising economic inequality has put capitalism on trial globally. At the same time, existential environmental threats worsen while corporations continue to pollute and distort government policy. These twin crises have converged in calls to revamp government and economic systems and to revisit socialism, given up for dead only 30 years ago. In Capitalism and the Environment, Shi-Ling Hsu argues that such an impulse, if enacted, will ultimately harm the environment. Hsu argues that inequality and environmental calamities are political failures – the result of bad decision-making – and not a symptom of capitalism. Like socialism, capitalism is composed of political choices. This book proposes that we make a different set of choices to better harness the transformative power of capitalism, which will allow us to reverse course and save the environment.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 How Capitalism Saves the Environment
• 3 Capital Investments Create Their Own Political Economy
• 4 Bloated Capital: How Capitalism Went Awry
• 5 The Case for Environmental Taxation
• 6 What Should Be Taxed?
• 7 Generating Environmental Knowledge
• 8 Looking Before Leaping
• 9 Conclusion
• Index