Welcome to New World Same Humans, a weekly newsletter on trends, technology, and society by David Mattin.
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Here in the UK, this week marks one year since the start of the first coronavirus lockdown.
Time, then, to reflect. A note this week on what we know must change: about our relationship with markets, growth, and government. And why it’s time to reclaim an old, politically charged phrase: there is no alternative.
If you prefer to read this week’s instalment, go here for the text version of New World Same Humans #58.
Links in this week’s instalment
1. Oxfam says that without government intervention it will take over a decade for the number of people living in poverty worldwide to return to pre-pandemic levels.
2. Forbes says the world’s 10 richest people increased their wealth by a combined half a trillion US dollars in 2020.
3. The International Energy Agency says carbon emissions have now rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.
4. Margaret Thatcher said of her programme of deregulation: there is no alternative.
5. Rising political theorist Will Davies has called for a generation of ‘legal and economic rebuilders’ to create new structures for the decades ahead.
6. This recent paper, The Mutualist Economy: A New Deal for Ownership, by Nils Gilman and Yakov Feygin from think tank the Berggruen Institute proposes a new social contact for a world of automation.
7. Economist Mariana Mazzucato is drawing the outlines of a new relationship between government, enterprise, and innovation.
Make It New
Thanks for listening this week.
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I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. See you then,
David.
New World Same Humans #58 – Audio Version