Sozialalmanach - Caritas Luxembourg

are grouped into three main themes that flow directly from the analysis in this report.
Specifically these themes are:
– Establishing the limits;
– Fixing the economic model;
– Changing the social logic.
Inevitably, there is some overlap between these groupings. Undoubtedly there are
things missing from the range of policies suggested here. Not all of them can be achieved
immediately. Not all of them can be achieved unilaterally. But taken together they offer
the foundation from which to build meaningful and lasting change.
Establishing the Limits
The material profligacy of consumer society is depleting key natural resources and
placing unsustainable burdens on the planet’s ecosystems . Establishing clear resource and
environmental limits and integrating these limits into both economic functioning and social
functioning is essential. The following three policy suggestions contribute to that task:
1. Resource and emission caps – and reduction targets;
2. Fiscal Reform for Sustainability;
3. Support for ecological transition in developing countries.
Fixing the Economic Model
A macro-economy predicated on continual expansion of debt-driven materialistic
consumption is unsustainable ecologically, problematic socially, and unstable economically.
The time is now ripe to develop a new macro-economics for sustainability that does not
rely for its stability on relentless growth and expanding material throughput. This theme
includes four specific policy areas to help achieve this goal:
4. Developing an ecological macro-economics;
5. Investing in jobs, assets and infrastructures;
6. Increasing financial and fiscal prudence;
7. Revising the national accounts.
Changing the Social Logic
The social logic that locks people into materialistic consumerism as the basis for participating
in the life of society is extremely powerful. But it is also detrimental ecologically
and psychologically. An essential pre-requisite for a lasting prosperity is to free people from
this damaging dynamic and provide opportunities for sustainable and fulfilling lives. We
offer five policy areas to help achieve this task:
8. Working time policy;
9. Tackling systemic inequality;
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