I sometimes hear I belong to a ‘lost generation’, which no longer cares about anything but themselves. But how can we trust our political system when we feel disenfranchised and unable to make a difference; what’s the point in caring for something that no longer belongs to us?
Even though economists recognize the influence of money lobbyists on the political system, and are aware that “the market” cannot in itself take action against global warming and pollution, there is no prevalent search for alternatives or debate about the fundamental workings of our monetary-based economy. The public debate is between the left and right of the same model; how much a government should intervene into “free trade”, a debate that many of my generation have stopped participating in, rejecting it as false democracy.
With the possibilities of modern technology at hand and the wisdom from civilizations that have risen and fallen before our own, is this really the best we can do? Why is there no real debate about alternative ways of managing our resources, where are the ideas for a new economic system?
I think it is time to focus on what solutions we have available since we are already despondently aware of the problems - and that is what Future for Sale is all about, and what I hope we will be discussing in this blog.
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1 response so far ↓
1 Robert Searle // Jun 19, 2008 at 9:03 am
Whether we like it, or not capitalism is the present system of economics. This is recognized in Transfinancial Economics, or TFE.
By harnessing the present capitalist system it is possible to create sustainable infrastructures, and all the rest. In the normal scheme of things many of these projects would to a large extent be unviable commercially .
However, with the careful authorized transmission of new non-repayable money (ie.commercial grants, or subsidies as opposed to loans in such situations) in instalments a PROFIT MOTIVE is created to allow certain large, or small-scale sustainable projects to become possible. Using earned money however would make the whole process hugely difficult, and virtually IMPOSSIBLE.
TFE recognizes the present capitalist system as a “bridge” towards a system in which money does not exist, and where peaceful cooperation is the order of the day within a high-tech context such as the Venus Project.
The present problem is to try and reform the present capitalist system before embarking slowly but surely on more advanced thinking, and projects. This is what we should be concentrating on more.
This is a big subject as you can well imagine!
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