The Political-Economic Foundations of a Sustainable System

Abstract

It is increasingly obvious that the current political and economic system, globally but especially in the United States, is largely incapable of addressing the big sustainability challenges that the world faces today. Many of our economic and ecological problems are global in nature, but the United States faces some unique challenges that make the crisis even more acute. Unlike in Western Europe and Japan, where population is projected to be relatively constant, the U.S. population is set to grow by at least 100 million—and likely 150 million—by 2050. Where and under what conditions these people will live present serious challenges to sustainability planning. U.S. cities today are so spatially and economically unstable that anything beyond superficial sustainability planning is impossible.¹