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.
New World Same Humans is a community founded on one principle: that we shouldn’t leave our shared future to the powers that be. Instead, we should help build it.
Our amazing community of founders, designers, technologists, researchers, policy makers and more continues to grow. Let’s keep that going!
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I’ll be back on Wednesday with New Week Same Humans. See you then,
David.
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