Writing in "Capitalism Nature Socialism", Doug Boucher, Peter Caplan, David Schwartzman and Jane Zara criticise eco-socialists in general (and Joel Kovel in particular) for a deterministic "catastrophism" that overlooks "the countervailing tendencies of both popular struggles and the efforts of capitalist governments to rationalize the system" and the "accomplishments of the labor movement" that "demonstrate that despite the interests and desires of capitalists, progress toward social justice is possible".

“When I realized my daughter was deaf, I could not find a way to rationalize spending hours working on my music.