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1 results

  • 8 - Taming the Market

  • from Part III - Back to the Future
  • John M. Gowdy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York
  • Book:
    Ultrasocial
    Published online:
    09 October 2021
    Print publication:
    26 August 2021, pp 149-165

  • Summary

    Individuals did not choose the transition to ultrasociality or its incarnation as the global market economy. The current configuration of global human society is the result of the mechanical forces of Darwinian natural selection working on groups. Avoiding environmental and social disasters requires actively reasserting human agency over the ultrasocial system. The first step is to curb the excesses of the global market economy. Minimal policies to temporarily stabilize the system would ensure the well-being of all individuals and protect the natural world we depend on. Environmental policies at a minimum should stabilize the level of atmospheric CO2 to prevent catastrophic climate change and greatly expand and protect the Earth’s nonhuman life forms by expanding wild areas. Minimal social policies include universal health care, universal education, establishing a minimum and maximum income, and ensuring old age security. But these policies are only a first step in a transition to a sustainable evolutionary path.