Abstract: The working class and poor can set an example to the richest in the context of their cultural practices based on voluntary simplicity. This sobriety is usually constrained in the lower classes, but it can become a way of virtuous life to personal, social and ecological buen vivir or the happy sobriety. Between the excesses that are charitable or liberal policies on the one hand and political idealists naive liberal or decreasing, there is a third way. Social policy of the happy sobriety, the écosocialist degrowth.

There is no paper for this media entry. This was a contribution to a scientific session at the 4th International Degrowth Conference in Leipzig in 2014, which doesn't exist in written format or is not published under open access.