Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth - Softcover

Robeyns, Ingrid

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1802060472 ISBN 13: 9781802060478

Publisher: Penguin, 2025

Synopsis

*A NEW YORKER, ESQUIRE, HISTORY TODAY AND THE CONVERSATION BOOK OF THE YEAR*

‘The best case I've read for putting an upper limit on the accumulation of wealth’ Richard Wilkinson

'One of the most talked-about books to the moment … Limitarianism floats the heretical idea that fixing society isn’t just about saving the poorest from destitution, but about putting a cap on how much the richest are able to own' Spectator

No-one deserves to be a millionaire. Not even you.

We all notice when the poor get poorer: when there are more rough sleepers and food bank queues start to grow. But if the rich become richer, there is nothing much to see in public and, for most of us, daily life doesn't change. Or at least, not immediately.

In this astonishing, eye-opening intervention, world-leading philosopher and economist Ingrid Robeyns exposes the true extent of our wealth problem, which has spent the past fifty years silently spiralling out of control. In moral, political, economic, social, environmental and psychological terms, she shows, extreme wealth is not only unjustifiable but harmful to us all - the rich included.

In place of our current system, Robeyns offers a breathtakingly clear alternative: limitarianism. The answer to so many of the problems posed by neoliberal capitalism - and the opportunity for a vastly better world - lies in placing a hard limit on the wealth that any one person can accumulate. Because nobody deserves to be a millionaire. Not even you.

*Shortlisted for the Socrates Philosophy Prize*

About this title

About the Author

Ingrid Robeyns holds master's degrees in economics and philosophy, and obtained her PhD at Cambridge University under the supervision of Amartya Sen. She currently holds the Chair in Ethics of Institutions at Utrecht University. She previously served as the director of the Ethics Institute at Utrecht University, and as the first director of the Dutch Research School for Philosophy. Her academic work has been supported by several grants from the Dutch Research Council, as well as by a €2 million ERC Consolidator Grant. In 2018, she was elected as a member of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Sciences and Arts. In September 2021, she was awarded an Emma Goldman Award for her work on inequality studies and feminism by the FLAX Foundation in Vienna. Limitarianism is her first trade book.

From the Back Cover

We all notice when the poor get poorer: when there are more rough sleepers and food bank queues start to grow. But if the rich become richer, there is nothing much to see in public and, for most of us, daily life doesn't change. Or at least, not immediately.

In this astonishing, eye-opening intervention, world-leading philosopher and economist Ingrid Robeyns exposes the true extent of our wealth problem, which has spent the past fifty years silently spiralling out of control. In moral, political, economic, social, environmental and psychological terms, she shows, extreme wealth is not only unjustifiable but harmful to us all - the rich included.

In place of our current system, Robeyns offers a breathtakingly clear alternative: limitarianism. The answer to so many of the problems posed by neoliberal capitalism - and the opportunity for a vastly better world - lies in placing a hard limit on the wealth that any one person can accumulate. Because nobody deserves to be a millionaire. Not even you.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1802060472
• ISBN 13: 9781802060478
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336