Monday, October 13, 2008

New economic order?

Has capitalism as we know it been tested so much that it might never be the same? This is quite possible. There certainly is room for a “middle way” between abject misery and unsustainable opulence that often seem to come with capitalism. This said, I don’t favor collectivism or socialism and don’t feel too good about anti-globalization either. Again, there must be an alternative way that’s more comprehensive in the way it measures the growth required to bring developing nations to a certain threshold of comfort and measures the effort needed to maintain that same level in already “developed economies.” It also needs to include a comprehensive understanding about what a reasonable population mass can be afforded against available resources and ecological requirements. The goal should be global sustainability and there’s perhaps room for prosperity within these boundaries, but it will likely be drastically different for what we thought wealth should be and might take some very creative and inventive ideas to get there. My point is that the economy can’t no longer be seen as totally separated from its impact upon social issues and global environment. This is an approach that deserves a zero-base approach and demands that we erase all the paradigms that have arisen since the renaissance. Hence the concept of “second renaissance…”

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