Extremes of two world economies – Communist and Capitalist

Up until now, two major economies have dominated the world – the communist economy, militarily controlled and with only state enterprises (or so it was believed outside of their military borders) and the so-called capitalist economy that commenced with the Industrial Revolution in the West.

The current fading away of communist economies, along with its accompanying extremes may be inferred with the fate of economies in Russia, China and Cuba –China introducing state-controlled private enterprise, which in the writer’s opinion is best for a country – though not with military regimentation. 

Commencing with the Industrial Revolution in a burst of a completely uncontrolled private sector, to which the rights of workers were eventually introduced, the world had allowed the capitalist economy full sway, even with controlled mechanisms. This had led to human greed overcoming a just world economy, resulting in societal inequalities in both power and wealth.

Is it any wonder there are human revolts and planetary upheavals that call for immediate attention by world leaders who are even at this very moment having an international conference to find solutions, which we continue to see being delayed, presumably by overwhelming human greed to acquire more and more wealth?

The conference is discussing the following matters, among many others:

• Curtailing capitalist extremism in order to preserve both development and democracy and in turn to have a more just and equal world with social and economic equality.
• Building economic solidarity in business ventures, namely to have social interactions with altruistic motives towards society as opposed to individualistic decisions with only profit as the sole motive.
• Encouraging economic innovation that results in higher productivity with the same inputs, generating a greater output of more goods and services that will in turn interact with market forces to bring down prices for the benefit of consumers and also make way for better pay for workers as opposed to benefiting shareholders only.
• Promoting economic inclusion by enabling equal opportunity for all members of society as employers, entrepreneurs, consumers and citizens represented by civil society groups to participate in business decisions.
• Economic integration which is an arrangement among nations to reduce or eliminate trade barriers and co-ordinate fiscal policies to reduce costs for both producers and consumers and increase trade between countries.

This conference hopes these new thoughts will bring about:

• A sustainable world for us and for future generations to live in.
• New ways to restore ethical foundations of economies.
• Address planetary disturbances.
• Bring about a global economic transformation of ‘power, people and values’

So it is not “my country” alone but the mass of humanity that is cradled in the vast planet earth that must be thought of in business ventures and the advancement of a nation – both big and small.

Do not all these thoughts echo moral, altruistic concepts of kindness, love compassion towards the neighbour, rather than only concentrating on the indices of productivity and profit margins? 

The writer also would venture a thought that the current Sustainable Development Goals proffered by the UN is worth a close study sans prejudicial political concepts, to bring about the above stated just economic world, or even a developed world from a still developing one.