Righting the balance

Two major threats face the world: environmental degradation and the growing gap between rich and poor. Historical and contemporary evidence indicates that they are symptomatic of a growing structural imbalance in all economies – how nature is exploited to create wealth and how it is shared among the population. The root of this imbalance is that natural capital is under-priced, and hence overly exploited, whereas human capital is insufficient to meet demand, thus encouraging relatively higher wages for skilled labour and wealth inequality.