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‘Free market capitalism is the greatest agent of collective human progress ever created’-Theresa May
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In an Open Letter to Prime Minister May published on the GCGI website, I had noted the disastrous consequences of our broken capitalist model and values, whilst offering an alternative path (more on this a bit later).
Today I was very pleased to hear that many leading capitalists, the so-called captains of industry and finance in our country have come out, agreeing with me! WoW! Can you believe it!
‘Capitalism 'has been broken', top UK business leaders warn’
'Greedy, tax-dodging capitalism'
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Socialism for the Fatcats and Capitalism for the rest
Capitalism and the Grenfell Towering Inferno Photo:bing.com
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Bastard Economics of Greedy Neoliberalism and the Killings of the Innocents in London Tower
‘The state of capitalism is in desperate need of reform and modernisation, according to some of the UK’s top business leaders, who claim that the system has been hurt by management greed, corporate tax dodging and investor short-termism.
Speaking on a panel for the Financial Times, former minister Baroness Shriti Vadera, who is now chairwoman of Santander UK, said that “the underlying promise of western capitalist economies — that a rising tide lifts all boats — has been broken”. She said that a “better model” is needed. Others echoed her remarks.
Robert Swannell, the former chairman of retailer Marks and Spencer, said that capitalism had “lost its way” and that companies and their investors had become much too focused on short termism, according to the FT.
People’s Tragedy: Neoliberal Legacy of Thatcher and Reagan
The Destruction of our World and the lies of Milton Friedman
The Value of Values: Why Values Matter
What might an Economy for the Common Good look like?
And Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, said that capitalism had taken a number of “wrong turnings”.
“The financial crash, a fixation on shareholder value at the expense of purpose, and the toxic issues of […] payment of tax and executive pay stand in the way of redemption,” she said, according to the FT.
The chairman of Barclays and Lloyds and the former chairman of HSBC also levelled criticism at the emergence of short-termism. Anne Richards, chief executive of asset management company M&G, said: “In the current era, best described as ‘the age of anxiety’, we will see capitalism rejected unless it finds a way of fundamentally addressing this anxiety.”
Last week the former Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, claimed capitalism is coming to an end because it is making itself obsolete.
Speaking to an audience at University College London, he said that artificial intelligence would spell the end of capitalism in its current form.
“Capitalism is going to undermine capitalism, because they are producing all these technologies that will make corporations and the private means of production obsolete,” he said, according to the FT.’
The above excerpts were first published in The Independent on 23 October 2018
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Capitalism is broken. Here’s how to fix it
The best I can offer is to revisit the letter I had written to Mrs. May which is as true today as when I wrote it: Dear Prime Minister-Britain needs a New Economic Model
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Helping Hands Tree
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What is the essence of a good life? Aristotle tells us that it is ‘‘to serve others and to do good.’’
VOLUNTEERS
“Many will be shocked to find
When the day of judgement nears
That there's a special place in heaven
Set aside for volunteers.”-Author unknown
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Recently I came across a very interesting article about the wonders of volunteerism, doing good in the interest of the common good, and their corresponding health and emotional/spiritual benefits for those who engage in this type of activities.
I believe the article: ‘Rx It’s Good to be Good (G2BG) 2017 Commentary: Prescribing Volunteerism for Health, Happiness, Resilience, and Longevity’ is of significant interest to the GCGI community, and thus, I wish to share it with our readers.
However, before doing so, I would very much like, to share, once more, a selection of related articles that have been posted online at the GCGI website to highlight our mission further:
“To understand, appreciate, and face the challenges of the contemporary world requires us to focus on life’s big picture. Whether it is war and peace, economics and the environment, justice and injustice, love and hatred, cooperation and competition, common good and selfishness, science and technology, progress and poverty, profit and loss, food and population, energy and water, disease and health, education and family, we need the big picture in order to understand and solve the many pressing problems, large and small, regional or global.
The “Big Picture” is also the context in which we can most productively explore the big perennial questions of life - purpose and meaning, virtues and values.
In order to focus on life’s bigger picture and guided by the principles of hard work, commitment, volunteerism and service; with a great passion for dialogue of cultures, civilisations, religions, ideas and visions, at an international conference in Oxford in 2002 the Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative (GCGI) and the GCGI Annual International Conference Series were founded.
We recognise that our socio-economic problems are closely linked to our spiritual problems and vice versa. Moreover, socio-economic justice, peace and harmony will come about only when the essential connection between the spiritual and practical aspects of life is valued. Necessary for this journey is to discover, promote and live for the common good. The principle of the common good reminds us that we are all really responsible for each other – we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers – and must work for social conditions which ensure that every person and every group in society is able to meet their needs and realize their potential. It follows that every group in society must take into account the rights and aspirations of other groups, and the well-being of the whole human family.”...Continue to read
If you want to be happy, be a volunteer. If you want others to be happy, be a volunteer
Your Body, Soul, Mind, Health, Happiness and Volunteerism for the Common Good
Build a Better World: The Healing Power of Doing Good
And now, the article I had mentioned above:
‘Rx It’s Good to be Good (G2BG) 2017 Commentary: Prescribing Volunteerism for Health, Happiness, Resilience, and Longevity’
Stephen G. Post, PhD
President, Institute for Research on Unlimited Love—Spirituality, Compassion, Service, and Founding Director, Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics Department of Family, Population, and Preventive Medicine Stony Brook University School of Medicine.
Abstract
This article presents and interprets the strong evidence that helping others in meaningful ways generally results in a happier, healthier, resilient, and even longer life for the giver; based on the strength of this evidence overall and in subpopulations including patient groups, it then asserts that the time has come for health-care professionals to prescribe and recommend such behavior at sustainable levels generally in the range of 2 hours per week. The medical evidence justifies the prescribing (or recommending) of volunteerism and helping activities for individuals, schools, companies, and whole communities. This article presents this innovative claim against the backdrop Norman Rockwell’s iconic image of The Golden Rule (1961), in which he captures the benefits of focusing our minds and actions on contributing to the lives of others. The review encompasses all age groups, many special categories of people grappling with illness, and population health generally.
Read the article: Rx It’s Good to be Good (G2BG) 2017 Commentary: Prescribing Volunteerism for Health, Happiness, Resilience, and Longevity
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14th GCGI International Conference
And
The Fourth GCGI and SES Joint Conference, Lucca, Tuscany 2018
‘OUR SACRED EARTH: Spiritual Ecology, Values-led Economics, Education and Society Responding to Ecological Crisis’
CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION
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Globalisation for the Common Good Initiative
and
Fourth Joint Conference
28 August-1 September 2018
‘OUR SACRED EARTH:
‘Spiritual Ecology, Values-led Economics, Education and Society Responding to Ecological Crisis’
To be hosted at
Villa Boccella, Tuscany, Italy
(A truly spiritual and inspirational place: This 17th Century Tuscan estate which is set amongst the hills of Northern Tuscany is very well situated, 10 Kilometers from the medieval city of LUCCA, one hour from the international airport of Pisa and about two hours from Florence. The Villa and estate belong to long-standing members of the School of Economic Science, and we are grateful to them for hosting the 2018 Joint Conference.)
CALL FOR PAPERS AND PARTICIPATION