Occupy World Street Blog

Consider for a moment the logic that drives the current focus on economic growth in the USA. The implicit assumption is that greater economic growth leads to greater average income, which in turn leads to greater happiness and greater health. In a frontal attack on this deeply ingrained assumption, two British sociologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett show in a recent publication that the assumption is completely wrong¹.  When industrialized countries are compared, it turns out that happiness and longevity are unrelated to average income. Contrary to traditional economic thinking, increasing income does not produce happier or healthier people. What does explain differences in health—and with great statistical significance—is the degree of income inequality in a given country. Figure 1 illustrates that, among the industrialized countries, those with the greatest income inequality score worst on the authors’ “Index of Health and Social Problems,” with the USA performing worst of all.

Suppose we were to ask ourselves the question: what would an ideal world order look like if it were based on ecological sustainability and human rights as the overarching principles, while allowing a maximum of democracy and freedom to all world citizens? I am sure we would get many different answers.

The Failure to Act

“If we don't change our direction we're likely to end up where we're headed.” This ancient Chinese saying is simple but very profound, and is especially relevant to our time.

Setting a New Course

In Occupy World Street, I have put forward not only the outline of a new, sustainable and just world order, but, more importantly, have proposed a strategy to get it underway.

As a former foreign exchange adviser and currency fund manager, I would like to contribute a slightly different slant on the ongoing EU crisis than what has been written to date, including its causes and the best long-term solution. 

Occupy World Street is a vision for co-creating a new future and pointing the arrow of our collective efforts in a new direction. Hopefully, this site will become a meeting place for all those who wish to discuss the issue of how we can change the ruinous course that our global civilization is following.

The vision for OccupyWorldStreet.org is to facilitate a much needed discussion about radical reform of the global political and economical institutions. At present (January 2012) we are adding interactive functionality to the site and look forward to welcoming our future users to a stimulating debate.

In community, Rolf Jackson (The Webmaster)