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Content Summary

Inside This Issue

ARTICLES
In Search of a New Paradigm for Global Development
Ivo Šlaus & Garry Jacobs

The Demographic Revolution: Reconceptualizing Macroeconomics
Orio Giarini

Networks: Innovation, Growth and Sustainable Development
Peter Johnston

Human Centered Development Perspective
Ivo Šlaus, Orio Giarini & Garry Jacobs
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Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds

National Intelligence Council Washington: NIC, Dec 2012, 137p, $9.99pb; $1.99

Kindle (download free at www.dni.gov/nic/globaltrends).

The fifth quadrennial installment of the NIC series “aimed at providing a framework for thinking about the future…by identifying critical trends and potential discontinuities,” described as “megatrends” (factors that will likely occur under any scenario) and “game-changers” (critical variables whose trajectories are far less certain). As appreciation of diversity and complexity grows, “we have increased attention to scenarios or alternative worlds we might face.” Alternatively stated, “We are at a critical juncture in human history, which could lead to widely contrasting futures.”The world of 2030 “will be radically transformed.” Read More

Abstract

On 2 April, 2013, the Arms Trade Treaty, which had been blocked for ten years in the consensus-bound Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, was put directly before the United Nations General Assembly, and was passed by a massive majority. This historic victory opens new possibilities for progress on other seemingly intractable issues. In particular, it gives hope that a Nuclear Weapons Convention might be adopted by a direct vote on the floor of the General Assembly. The adoption of the NWC, even if achieved against the bitter opposition of the nuclear weapon states, would make it clear that the world’s peoples consider the threat of an all-destroying thermonuclear war to be completely unacceptable. Read More

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed significant changes in the structure of unemployment in the global labour market. This is corroborated by the fact that the global workforce is rapidly aging and the share of people aged 50 and over in the structure of the labour market is increasing. In line with this trend, unemployment issues should be considered as a global problem that cannot be fully resolved at the level of any individual country separately. Read More

Abstract

This article is not a comprehensive factual history of money as an economic instrument. It aims rather to present an essential psychological history of the power of money as a social organization or social technology. It explores the catalytic role of money in the development of society and its ever-increasing capacity for accomplishment in both economic and non-economic fields. This perspective focuses attention on the unutilized potential for harnessing the social power of money for promoting full employment, global development and human welfare. The title ‘multiplying money’ is intended to convey the idea that this untapped potential is exponential in nature. In order to recognize it, some fundamental misconceptions about the nature of money, how it is created and on what it is based need to be examined. This is the second article in a series. Read More

Abstract

T.R. Malthus’ “An Essay on the Principle of Population” (1798) was one of the first systematic studies of the problem of population in relation to resources. It was the first such study to stress the fact that, in general, powerful checks operate at all times to keep human populations from increasing beyond the available food supply. In a later edition, published in 1803, he buttressed this assertion with carefully collected demographic and sociological data from many societies at various periods of their histories. The debate between Malthus and his contemporaries closely parallels current discussions of optimal global population in relation to the carrying capacity of the earth’s environment. This essay will discuss not only the historical debate on the ideas of Malthus, but also its relevance to the 21st century. In particular, the essay will discuss the danger that a famine of unprecedented scale may occur during the present century, caused by prohibitively high prices of fossil fuels (on which modern agriculture depends) compounded by the effects of climate change. Read More

“The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”
Robert Hutchins

Abstract

When it comes to political organisation the western world likes to claim the moral high ground. It touts the benefits of free and fair elections, as if the concept of democracy were a self-evident, eternal truth. For the US State Department, democracy has taken on near-religious significance. It has become a right, just as much as the right to life, liberty and happiness. Read More

Abstract

The remarkable achievements of one of the world’s greatest entrepreneurs offer profound insights into the fundamental nature of economy and essential missing links in prevailing economic theory. The career of Steve Jobs dramatically illustrates the central importance of human capital in modern economy and the almost incalculable contribution that a single individual can make to technological advancement, social innovation and wealth creation, while enhancing the lifestyle of hundreds of millions of people. Jobs demonstrated that the real basis of economic value is providing valuable products and services that fulfill human needs and aspirations, not unregulated markets and financial speculation. His apparent failures point to the dual nature of uncertainty that presides over all human activity – both the ever present threat of error and the untold opportunities hidden behind the veil. Widely regarded as a genius for inventing better products, his greatest commercial achievement has been in recognizing the central importance of services in modern society and fashioning integrated social service systems within which products act as an enabling technology. Read More

Πάντων χρημάτων μέτρον άνθρωπος Πρωταγόρας
The human being is the measure of all things
– Protagoras

Abstract

Protagoras said, “The human being is the measure of all things”. This implies, among other things, that language, science and religion are human inventions, as are economics, money, efficiency, race, conflict, etc. As symbol-using animals, we have created these concepts to serve our purposes. But as our societies have increased in size and our concepts have become more abstract, there is a danger that we will forget our authorship and reify these symbols. This inhibits change in the way we name things, so we are always in danger of misunderstanding the reality we are describing. We seem to be at such a stage now as we employ 18th and 19th century theories to describe and, more importantly, create 21st century reality. One such idea has to do with human needs. Influenced by the abstract (economic) concepts we use, we have lost our sense of what we truly need. Epicurus and Maslow may help to review and reassess those concepts. Epicurus, by suggesting that our material needs are quite simple but that emotional and spiritual need satisfaction requires a small scale loving community, free from fear, and Maslow, by suggesting that our emotional development is age-related, which, besides therapy, may help in suggesting revisions in socioeconomic theory that would ensure the social conditions that would allow this development to take place successfully. Read More

Abstract

Old economic approaches are not capable of meeting our economic, environmental, and social challenges. To effectively meet these challenges, we need a perspective that goes beyond the conventional capitalism vs. socialism debate. This paper places economic valua- tions in their social context from the perspective of two new social categories. It describes building blocks for a new paradigm for economics, focusing on new measurements, policies, and practices that support caring for people, starting in early childhood, as well as caring for our natural environment. Read More