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Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1998 16:18:07
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Asunto: WORLD ECONOMY
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WORLD ECONOMY
Enviado por:THE RESEARCH CENTRE FOR GLOBAL GOVERNANCE (RCGG- Fax.+55-51-316.3983 |
| E-mail: pgg@vortex.ufrgs.br or rcgg_pgg@hotmail.com
Subject: World Economy
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 05:49:06
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Problem: Globalization has shattered the economic structures of
the nations.
Solution: The new global economic system should serve the
material, intellectual, and spiritual needs of all humanity.
TOWARDS A WORLD ECONOMY
John Huddleston
The most important themes in the vision of future economy are
(1) that the economies of the world will become one global economy
serving the material, intellectual, and spiritual needs of all
humanity; and (2) that the underlying force deriving the economy
will be spiritual or, in secular terms, ethical.
From the beginning of civilization right up until recent times
agriculture has completely dominated the vast majority of the
economies of the world. Agriculture could normally meet local
needs for food, clothing, and shelter , and consequently communities
were largely self-subsisting. There was, therefore, little incentive
to have contact with other communities. This tendency to isolationism
was reinforced by inefficient and slow systems of transport, by
language barriers, and by the sheer risk of travel over long distances
even when peace was enforced by mighty empires such as those of Rome
and China.
The general picture of the economies of the world over several
thousand years began to change with the Renaissance and the rise
of Europe. Over a period of three centuries (from the fifteenth
to the eighteenth), Europe established contact with most parts of
the world. These contacts were vastly strengthened in the nineteenth
century by the improved systems of communication of the industrial
revolution, systems which were fast, had increased capacity for bulk
cargo and for cargo that hitherto would have deteriorated en route:
the fast sailship, the steamship, the refrigerator ship, the telegraph.
In the following decades, the trend towards a world economy was the
integration of national economies into one system. There are at least
two other important dimensions to this process. The first of these is
some acknowledgement that the economies of the world are divided by
extremes of wealth and poverty and that it is in the interest of all
that poverty should be eliminated and further, the distribution of
wealth should be more equitable. The great regions of the world,
promoting the idea of humanity being one family, have always shown
concern for the poor and encouraged charity.
Initially, the move towards a more equitable society was essentially
confined to arrangements within each nation, but since the Second World
War growing attention has been given to the need for greater equity among
the nations. The founders of United Nations (UN) recognized that one of
the major flaws with the preceding League of Nations has been lack of
sufficient attention to the underlying causes of war: whole nations in
poverty and widespread violation of basic human rights.
The third dimension to the evolving global economy is the growing
acknowledgement
that in physical terms that economy is an integral part
of the natural environment and that there will be enormous costs for all
if this fact is ignored. The vested interests have resisted practical
action to protect the environment, and many were persuaded at first that
it meant anti-growth and anti-development. The main initial thrust to
protect the environment was within national communities, but increasingly
it is recognized that environmental problems do not stop at national
boundaries.
The evolution of the economies of the world shows that there is an
overriding trend towards their integration into one global system
and that this has been paralleled by growing spiritual imperatives
with regard to the need first to integrate all peoples into the
economy so as to abolish the division caused by extremes of wealth
and poverty, and second to integrate them into global ecological system.
I would suggest it is of vital importance that we, individually and
collectively,
accept these historical trends and act to smooth their
further evolution rather than attempt to oppose them.
The important economic issues on world agenda should include all
the three dimensions of the world economy:
Among the issues concerning further integration of national
economies into a real world economy are:
* Extension of the effort to reduce trade barriers to include the
agricultural and service sectors, and strengthening of means for
enforcing the terms of liberal trade arrangements;
* Stabilization of currency relationships so as to reduce monetary
risks in international commerce, with the ultimate goal of a unified
currency system managed by a world authority;
* Greater coordination of national monetary and fiscal policies so
as to reduce the risk of world recession, on the one hand, and world
inflation, on the other;
* Development of international law for the regulation of transnational
and global corporations so as to prevent possible abuse of monopoly,
exploitation of employees in different countries, avoidance of fair
taxation, and environmental regulations, etc.
Among the issues concerning further reduction of extremes of wealth
and poverty are:
* Should the real goal be true equality of opportunity rather than
direct greater equality of wealth regardless of effort?
* How best to ensure that reduction in poverty continues while
pursuing policies to make the economy more efficient through such
means as reducing the public sector, decentralization, deregulation
and increased competition, lower and less progressive taxation
(all policies that are being pursued in varying degrees in socialist
as well as capitalist countries). Experience so far suggests that,
in the short run at least, such policies are INCREASING the number
who are impoverished.
* Can the problem be solved by changing the welfare state so that
it is more targeted to benefit the poor, by greater emphasis on
training, by encouraging dispersal of wealth through taxation of
inheritance according to the recipient rather than the donor,
greater use of profit sharing, and by elimination of racial and
sexual discrimination in employment?
* How best can we convert the phenomenon of an aging, static
population in rich countries into an asset rather than liability?
* What is the optimal model for an educational system,
a key input and output of any economy? What should be the mix
of sciences, arts, and ethics? What proportion of the population
should have the opportunity to receive secondary and tertiary
education? What role should the teacher have in society?
* What to do about the international trade in drugs that destroys
the lives of millions and vastly increases the power of criminals,
and yet at the same time represents for many poor countries one of
the main sources of foreign currency necessary to buy vital imports?
* What to do about the economic consequences of the arms race and
the international arms trade? What is euphemistically called
"defense" consumes or wastes some six percent of the world's
gross annual product, but at the same time, provides employment
for large numbers of people;How to make international aid more
effective and attractive to donor countries?
This question raises such issues as:
- Involvement of aid recipients at the grassroots level in the
choice, planning, and management of their projects so that they
have a real sense of ownership;
- Greater involvement of women;
- Elimination of corruption in aid programs, both in donor
and in recipient countries;
- The problem of continued rapid population growth in
Third World countries, which aggravates food shortages, slow down
efforts to reduce per capita poverty, and presents a major threat
to the world's environment;
- Revival of the rural sector so as to improve the food supply
and reduce the growth of the slum megalopolis;
- Ensuring that International Monitory Fund (IMF) programs
to stabilize economies do not hurt the poor;
- Finding ways to relieve the international debt of the poorest
countries without discouraging future international investment in
these countries.
Among the issues concerning the reconciliation of a growing world
economy with the need to protect and strengthen the natural environment
are:
- What is the most efficient and least risky approach to the energy
problem: nuclear power, fossil fuel (oil, coal, gas), hydroelectric
power, renewable power resources (wind, sea, sun), greater efficiency
in the use of power, or a switch in the mix for goods and services in
the output of the economy so that the need for power is reduced?
- How to make natural agriculture and traditional cultures as efficient
as the environmentally damaging modern system based on monoculture
and chemical fertilizers;
- How to manage the oceans, forests, soils, and rivers for the maximum
long-term benefit of all;
- Is the Western consumer society with its present emphasis on
massive use of resources to produce extravagant, disposable
goods a practical or desirable model for a development strategy
intended to abolish international poverty?
In considering these questions, it becomes apparent that the issue
is not just a matter of moving in accordance with the tides of
history. Underlying any approach to the economic agenda are
some deeper philosophical questions, including at least two
concerning our perceptions of what it means to be a human being.
First, we have to decide if humans are merely superior animals with
interests that are essentially materialistic, or if they are
distinguished from the animals by a spiritual side to their nature
that yearns for the transcendental, as is the theme of religion.
Second, we have to decide if humanity is a collection of groups
contending for dominance in one world, or if it is one family
- another theme of religion.
With regard to human nature, it is, of course, fashionable to have
a pessimistic view that humanity is essentially self-centered, greedy,
selfish, and violent. But a moment's reflection show that this view
is one sided. Human beings do have a spiritual side to their nature,
as shown in noble actions, and an instinct for the transcendental that
even the most powerful of militantly atheistic regimes have been unable
to crush in seven decades of rule.
History make it clear that groups struggling for dominance are
dangerous to all. To advance, indeed, to survive, we have to act
as one family. If we perceive that human beings have a spiritual
side to their nature, and humanity is to be one family, there are
clear guidelines on how to deal with the economic agenda of the
next decade.
If we are in essence spiritual beings, and then the end product
of an economy should be those goods and services that help each man,
woman, and child do develop their full physical, mental, and spiritual
potential. This surely means an economy that puts emphasis on basic
physical needs - quality food, clothing, shelter, health care, and
exercise facilities - and on cultivation of the mind and spirit -
education in the arts, sciences, and ethics, skills in crafts and
native culture, appreciation of nature.
If we are one family, then in economics, as in politics and social
affairs, the spirit of management should be cooperative and mutually
supportive. Competition and striving for excellence is indeed to be
encouraged, but with the purpose of maximizing service to humanity,
rather than mere self-advancement. Elimination of poverty throughout
the world will be of the highest priority. The cessation of war
between nations would alone release large resources for the relief
of poverty.
To summarize, the opportunities for the advancement of humanity by
the evolving world economy are immense - greater even than those that
occurred with the introduction of agriculture and with the coming of
the Industrial Revolution. But to exploit these opportunities, the
right decisions have to be taken, and that will to a large extend
depend on the system of values that we follow.
John Huddleston is the Assistant Director at the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington D.C. This partial summary is
extracted by Farhang Sefidvash from an article with the same
title published in the Journal of Bahá'í Studies, vol.3, no.3, 1991.
También revise:liberdade de pensamento, de
consciência e de religião
