The Majority of Americans Agree: Capitalism Is Failing Us—Here’s a Solution to Restore Equity and Heal Our Ecosystems
As capitalistic growth models continue to fuel climate change and the sixth mass extinction, with 30,000 species going extinct each year, animal and plant life is declining across the globe at rates never seen before in human history.
Under this system, workers are paid less than the full value of their labor, while capitalists use their assets as collateral to generate more wealth, further exacerbating income disparities. The benefits of capitalism appear to serve only a small minority of Americans, and this group is becoming increasingly concentrated, with only top 0.1% seeing the largest increase in wealth share since 1990.
As of 2023, 62% of Americans believe that “our current form of capitalism is not working for the average American,” which is the highest percentage recorded in years of polling on this topic.
Recognizing that the system is broken is only the first step. To address the impacts of capitalism, it is essential to identify alternatives that end systems of oppression, exploitation, and ecological destruction.
A hybrid model combining the circular economy (CE) and degrowth offer a systemic alternative to capitalism which prioritizes environmental regeneration and social equity.
The linear “take-make-waste” systems of the global north deplete finite resources and drive climate change. This model describes an unsustainable economic framework dominant in industrialized nations, where raw materials are extracted (take), transformed into goods (make), and discarded after use (waste).
The impacts of this linear model are systemic and far reaching, contributing to resource depletion and the acceleration of climate change. This is demonstrated by the fact that the global economy currently consumes resources 1.7x faster than the Earth regenerates them, depleting both finite and renewable resources.
Additionally, this system exacerbates social inequalities as corporations are able to offload environmental harms onto marginalized communities and ecosystems.
The structural incompatibility of capitalism and Earth systems is highlighted by the planetary boundaries framework, which defines nine critical thresholds for maintaining Earth’s stability—six of which have already been crossed—underscoring the contrast between capitalism’s reliance on perpetual economic expansion and the planet’s ecological limits.”
Crossed planetary boundaries include land use change, biosphere integrity, and freshwater use which are all linked to unsustainable systems of production and consumption.
Industrial animal agriculture is the primary driver of global deforestation with 50% of the Earth’s land surface dedicated to agriculture, of which 77% is used for livestock and land used for growing animal feed. Livestock production directly undermines biodiversity with over 60% of biodiversity loss linked to meat-centric diets.
Industrialized agriculture not only plays a major role in crossing the land use change planetary boundary but also inflicts significant harm on farmed animals, disrupts the habitats of wildlife displaced by land use change, and displaces Indigenous communities, often through violent land grabs. This modern exploitation has roots in colonial-era actions, such as replacing diverse Indigenous farming with monocultures, which set the stage for today’s exploitation.
Resource extraction has tripled in the past five decades, rising from 30 billion tonnes in 1970 to 106 billion tonnes, largely driven by high consumption in the Global North with the United States and European Union being responsible for 74% of global resource extraction from 1970-2017. The Global North extracts commodities valued at $2.2 trillion annually from the Global South, measured at Northern prices. This degrades the land and exploits labor in countries from which resources are extracted.
This stress on Earth’s systems can be connected to capitalism’s core mechanisms which create an existential need for growth as firms must continually expand profits to survive market competition. As Marx noted, capital accumulation is not optional—companies face “external coercive laws” to reinvest profits into growth or risk collapse.
Additionally, markets incentivize overproduction (e.g., fast fashion, disposable tech) to sustain demand, accelerating resource extraction and waste. Therefore, growth and GDP as a metric is favored over the wellbeing of nature and communities, leading to significant risks such as the destabilization of Earth’s systems and irreversible tipping points.
Alternative approaches to the current economic structure of the global north include the circular economy and degrowth models.
The circular economy focuses on positive society-wide benefits based on three key principles:
- Eliminating waste and pollution
- Circulating materials
- Regenerating nature
The circular economy model seeks to decouple economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, designing waste out of the system.
The Circularity Gap Report found that “the 22.8 billion tonnes (Gt) of annual emissions associated with creating new products from virgin materials can be eliminated by applying circular strategies that drastically reduce the amount of minerals, fossil fuels, metals and biomass consumed by the world’s economy.”
This reduction is achieved through various strategies including designing out waste and pollution from the outset of product creation, keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible, regenerating natural systems, promoting renewable energy adoption, and implementing closed-loop systems.
In closed loop systems, materials and products are continuously recycled and reused which minimizes waste and the need for new raw materials. Additionally, products are designed for circularity which means that they can be easily disassembled, repaired, and recycled at the end of their life cycle.
The degrowth economy prioritizes local economies, democracy and well-being over GDP by focusing on equitable downscaling of production and consumption. This system is synergistic with the circular economy as the circular economy reduces resource demand, enabling degrowth’s vision of lower economic throughput.
Key aspects of the degrowth model include:
- Rejecting GDP as a progress metric in favor of ecological and social indicators
- Addressing social inequalities arising from capitalism by promoting wealth distribution
- Advocating for universal basic services
- Emphasizing local production and decision-making
- Redefining work, including reduced working hours and valuing unpaid care work
These aspects support an economic system that works in harmony with nature, reduces gender inequality by recognizing the value of care work, and promotes well-being.
Integrating the circular economy and degrowth models offers a solution that could systemically transform our current, failing system of capitalistic growth. Under an integrated system of the circular economy and degrowth, governments could gradually decouple resource extraction from economic gain, and eliminate subsidies for fossil fuel industries, redirecting funds towards renewable energy and circular economy initiatives.
The industrial shift towards design for longevity would encourage companies to create durable, repairable, and upgradable products, reducing waste and resource consumption. Mandating extended producer responsibility (EPR) policies would make manufacturers accountable for the entire lifecycle of their products, including disposal and recycling. These measures could drive innovation in product design and business models, fostering a shift towards more sustainable production practices.
Unsustainable consumption patterns of our current system can also be addressed with this approach by promoting a cultural shift from consumerism to sufficiency. This involves redefining societal notions of success and well-being which could be supported by education and media campaigns that highlight the benefits of reduced consumption.
Community initiatives such as local food production, renewable energy projects, and skill-sharing networks, embody both circular economy and degrowth principles. Scaling up and replicating successful community-led models with support from an integrated circular economy and degrowth system could accelerate broader societal shifts towards sustainability.
Integrating the circular economy with the degrowth economy in western countries would also help address disparities between the Global South and the Global North which are further exacerbated by climate change. Technology transfer agreements, fair trade practices and more ethical methods of consumption and production under this model could help rebalance resource flows and economic opportunities.
This integrated model could provide a framework for addressing historical injustices and current inequalities by guiding the redistribution of wealth and resources, and ensuring that the benefits of a sustainable economy are shared globally. Under this model, international cooperation frameworks would place priority on equitable access to resources and sustainable development opportunities for all nations.
Integrating circular economy and degrowth principles could provide a framework for addressing historical injustices and current inequalities. These models could guide the redistribution of wealth and resources, ensuring that the benefits of a sustainable economy are shared globally. Implementing the circular economy paired with degrowth in international development projects could help create more resilient and equitable economic systems in the Global South.
The integrated circular economy and degrowth model faces challenges including political resistance, implementation barriers, and counterarguments in favor of “green growth.”
Powerful multinational corporations exert considerable influence on policy-making through lobbying efforts. These companies often prioritize profit maximization and market expansion, which can conflict with degrowth principles. Their lobbying activities may oppose regulations that limit resource extraction or consumption, advocate for policies that maintain the status quo of economic growth, or resist measures that could reduce their market share or profitability.
Additionally, many established institutions in the Global North are fundamentally tied to the paradigm of continuous economic growth. For example, banks, pension funds, and other financial institutions are structured around the expectation of ongoing economic expansion which creates systemic barriers to implementing degrowth policies.
Mainstream circular economy models are often framed as growth opportunities due to potential cost savings resulting from reducing virgin material use, job creation resulting from increased demand in remanufacturing and recycling sectors, and driving growth in the product-as-a-service business model.
The worldwide revenue of circular economy transactions was estimated to total roughly $339 billion in 2022,and this is forecasted to more than double by 2026, reaching a $712 billion market opportunity. This ideation of a growth centric circular economy falls under the umbrella of green growth.
Green growth aligns with neoliberal capitalism, emphasizing market-driven solutions (e.g., carbon pricing, green tech investments) and maintaining institutional trust in GDP as a progress metric.
Green growth frameworks typically avoid addressing global inequalities, whereas degrowth explicitly calls for redistributing wealth and scaling down overconsumption in the Global North.
A climate solution that does not address the interconnected social impacts causing and resulting from climate change is not, in fact, a solution, but a band-aid on a much larger problem.
Degrowth proponents argue that circular strategies alone cannot resolve ecological crises if growth remains the goal. True sustainability demands reducing total consumption, not just optimizing efficiency. This includes policies like material caps, repair mandates, and bans on planned obsolescence.
The combination of circular economy and degrowth principles offers a comprehensive approach to address the fundamental ecological and social shortcomings of capitalism including ecological and social failures.
The integrated circular economy and degrowth model tackles resource depletion and waste through closed-loop systems and directly challenges the paradigm of endless economic expansion on a finite planet which has been proven to be unsustainable as demonstrated with the planetary boundaries framework.
Additionally, this model advocates for wealth redistribution and redefining societal success metrics beyond GDP while promoting local production and repair economies which can reduce inequality.
Together, these models propose a systemic redesign that:
- Replaces linear “take-make-dispose” economics with regenerative cycles.
- Shifts focus from quantitative growth to qualitative development and well-being.
- Prioritizes sufficiency and equitable resource distribution over profit maximization.
The imperative to rapidly transition to these models is driven by internationally recognized climate targets, ecological tipping points, inequality reduction, and resource scarcity.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasizes that limiting global warming to 1.5°C requires “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society” with the integrated circular economy and degrowth model offering pathways to drastically reduce emissions while maintaining quality of life.
This model is able to address interconnected issues exacerbating the climate crises that extend beyond emissions reduction as circular economy principles can help restore degraded environments and manage limited resources with degrowth further supporting social equity, wellbeing, and ecological regeneration.
