Addressing inequality in post-growth societies. A pragmatist inquiry into the realisation of income and wealth limits

Since antiquity, intellectuals have debated how wealth should be fairly distributed. This thesis aligns with this long-standing tradition but does so in an unprecedented context marked by rising economic inequalities and an escalating ecological crisis. It investigates how inequalities might be reduced in a “post-growth” society – one that places human well-being at the centre without relying on economic growth as its primary engine. The thesis offers an innovative perspective by shifting the focus from poverty reduction to the regulation of extreme wealth itself, with particular attention to income and wealth caps. The first part argues that extreme wealth constitutes both an ecological and social problem: it fuels inequality, exacerbates the ecological crisis, and hinders necessary transformations. The thesis examines how policies of income and wealth caps could address this issue, explores their possible design options (such as maximum wages or maximum incomes), and analyses their historical role in reducing inequality in Western countries. The second part adopts a more empirical approach, exploring the conditions under which the public supports a specific measure – maximum income. Interviews and surveys conducted in Belgium reveal much higher levels of support than commonly assumed, reaching up to 65 %. The thesis concludes by discussing the potential emergence of a new inequality-reduction paradigm in which regulating extreme wealth becomes a central objective, thus outlining possible pathways towards implementing income and wealth limits in contemporary societies.