Summary of Jason Hickel's Less is More

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 Capitalism is a system that takes more than it gives back. The ecological crisis is an inevitable consequence of this system. The standard story that capitalism emerged naturally from feudalism is not true.

#2 Feudalism was a system in which the land was controlled by the nobility, and the people who lived on it were forced to render tribute to them in the form of rents, taxes, and unpaid labor. But it wasn’t the rise of capitalism that ended this system, it was the efforts of a long tradition of everyday revolutionaries.

#3 The rebellion that took place in 1381 in England and Germany was the final push that led to the eradication of serfdom. Peasants became free farmers, and they controlled up to 90 percent of the land in some regions.

#4 As national income was shared more evenly across the population, it became more difficult for nobles to accumulate the profits they had under feudalism. This is why capitalism required elite accumulation: to pile up excess wealth for large-scale investment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jul 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822543515

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Insights on Jason Hickel's Less is More

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Capitalism is a system that takes more than it gives back. The ecological crisis is an inevitable consequence of this system. The standard story that capitalism emerged naturally from feudalism is not true.

#2

Feudalism was a system in which the land was controlled by the nobility, and the people who lived on it were forced to render tribute to them in the form of rents, taxes, and unpaid labor. But it wasn’t the rise of capitalism that ended this system, it was the efforts of a long tradition of everyday revolutionaries.

#3

The rebellion that took place in 1381 in England and Germany was the final push that led to the eradication of serfdom. Peasants became free farmers, and they controlled up to 90 percent of the land in some regions.

#4

As national income was shared more evenly across the population, it became more difficult for nobles to accumulate the profits they had under feudalism. This is why capitalism required elite accumulation: to pile up excess wealth for large-scale investment.

#5

The rise of capitalism also depended on something else: labour. Enclosure solved this problem too, as it removed people’s only option of subsistence, which was to sell their labour.

#6

The rise of capitalism was not a gradual process, but rather was brought about by organized violence and the systematic destruction of self-sufficient subsistence economies. It did not end serfdom, but rather ended the progressive revolution that had ended serfdom.

#7

Industrial capitalism took off, but at a human cost. The first few hundred years of capitalism generated misery compared to pre-capitalist era.

#8

The rise of capitalism was also dependent on the expansion of European colonization, which was a response to the crisis of elite disaccumulation caused by the peasant revolutions in Europe.

#9

The Industrial