Beyond ESG: Reforming Capitalism and Social-Democracy

Abstract

The French version of this article is available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3786964. Several voices are rising to demand an in-depth reform of capitalism in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-2010, the increase in income and wealth inequalities of the last four decades, the climate urgency in a local global world. There is a real danger that governments will be put under pressure from poorly-informed groups and will want to play Goethe’s sorcerer's apprentice: too often, these good intentions are but a paved road to hell. In this document, I analyze various reform projects, I discuss the concepts of ethics and equity (environment, water, life, remuneration, inequalities, ESG) and I propose to add a project for in-depth reforms of capitalism and social-democracy.