An Economic Opportunity
It is impossible to stop the natural process unfolding in the global economy. Rising unemployment, accompanied by a decline in consumption, will continue until it is stabilized on a reasonable level. Many countries—particularly the United States, where 70% of the GDP comes from private consumption—are faced with a deadlock because they lack the tools to cope with the new situation.
As unemployment spreads, consumption will decrease, the GDP will decline, the economy will slide into recession, and unemployment will rise even higher. However, we should not view this process as a crisis. Rather, it is an opportunity to change the paradigms that are based on individualism, competition, and self-centered benefits, which have brought us to our current plight. We have an opportunity to create a new and balanced economy that will bring all of us a far higher standard of living than we currently have.
The main goal of the new economic system, the balanced economy, should be the provision of a reasonable and fair standard of living to all citizens. Financing will not come from rash bloating of budgets, which can jeopardize the stability of the system, but from the surplus that will be revealed in society through the transitions discussed above. This will occur without the need to use the old economic, fiscal, and monetary tools that have proven themselves inadequate to deal with the current crisis.
Instead, to deal with the crisis we must begin by understanding its root. We must provide an expansive process of explanation, education, and construction of a society founded on values of mutual guarantee and solidarity. We must come to feel that the world is a single family. Through education and the influence of the environment on us, the current function will change into a function whose aim is to provide the reasonable needs to sustain individuals, families, and firms. Anything beyond this will be used for public benefit.
The process of mutual guarantee assures reciprocity. In a society that functions in mutual guarantee, every person knows that if he or she is lacking, that lack will be met. Such a person will not need to care for himself and will be free to create and produce for the benefit of all.
People will be appreciated by society according to their contributions to it, rather than by their personal fortunes or positions. This shift of mindset will cause great surpluses to appear, which were hidden in times when people cared only for their own benefit, assuming that no one would care for them should they need assistance. In a mutual guarantee-based economy, there is no need to save for a rainy day. As part of the socioeconomic treaty, it will be society’s role to care for all of the people through agreed-upon taxation.