On the larger scale, surely everyone can agree at this point that a revolutionary change is needed. The idea of never-ending ever-increasing economic growth on a planet with finite resources simply cannot be sustained forever.

At the same time, we want to preserve what we have--our freedoms and democracy as well as our level of material well-being.

Can the two be reconciled? Can we achieve revolutionary change and preserve what we have?

Not for everyone: local crises, such as that described in this article, will still happen.

For civilization as a whole, however, there is a way. It is a revolutionary change within the existing economic system (which any nation could implement--with a single legislative Act).

With this change, total output would be governed by demographics--rather than, as at present, constantly seeking to ratchet up economic activity to the maximum extent in order to maximize employment, total income, and the collection of taxes. There would be no unemployment or poverty at any level of total output. We could even eliminate taxes/public debt for funding government.

As in every revolutionary event, in the immediate timeframe some would gain and some would lose materially--but every adult citizen in the U.S. would be guaranteed an income of $52,000/yr. (which, without taxes, would be the equivalent of something more than $70,000 today) and anyone would still be free to make any amount more than that (though, in the interest of full disclosure, it could only be the result of either working more than one job or individual effort; it could not result from taking an arbitrarily large share of the revenue generated by all employees in the collective effort that every business enterprise necessarily is).

if curious: "To Preserve What We Have, What We Have Must Be Enough" (here in Medium, but not behind the paywall)