LIBERALISM IS THE OTHER CHOICE

We know that in post-industrial, knowledge- and information-based societies, economic growth no longer guarantees a happy or even economically secure life.

Growth rather poses a threat to the survival of the world with the current or a larger population included.

The economy needs to find a direction of moderation, a balance with nature, and more equality in the distribution of income and benefits among the world’s population and within societies.

The population is set to explode from the current eight billion people rapidly because there are simply too many people of reproductive age to balance the situation, and China’s one-child policy is not even on the agenda anywhere else.

Professor Janne Hukkinen from the University of Helsinki’s Department of Environmental Sciences states the available option: "Thus, the only flexibility by the middle of this century will be to reduce the annual growth of GDP per capita. The pressure to curb economic growth specifically targets post-industrial societies, as developing countries still need economic growth to secure basic well-being."

The above is not ideology. It is an acknowledgment of thermodynamic and arithmetic facts.

The economy does not need to grow but rather shrink. This does not mean scarcity and misery, but sufficiency and well-being. Cultural studies have shown that cultures at different times define their material needs and the resources required to satisfy them in highly varied ways.

We must, therefore, look at things in a new way, which is not uncommon; in history, progress has been tied to this—innovation, ideas, and the ability to implement them. We are at a major turning point; this moment must be seized and acted upon because the alternative is final and fatal.

Academic but ideological political economic doctrines have not worked over the past 20 years, and in many respects, the direction has worsened, even though there has been success in the fight against extreme poverty.

The global financial system threatens to collapse into a casino culture, and unemployment threatens the majority of the population. The situation is reminiscent of the period between the world wars, with fascism and hateful extremist rhetoric rising as nationalism is interpreted as a turn inward and backward, with history being misinterpreted. What also goes unnoticed is that the most successful nations of the last century have been those that harness immigration: the emigrant nations—United States, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany...

We must find something new to replace the obsolete, something that does not yet exist—we must develop and build it ourselves.

The world now needs researchers, but above all, citizens who are ready to develop alternative models, also together, from the grassroots level when necessary.