Summary of Jason Hickel's Less is More

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #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.