Last week, I pointed to neoliberal ideology and economics as the fundamental flaw that has led us to ignore all the warning signs — in particular, that there are limits to growth — and instead pursue economic growth and increased wealth at all costs.
That ideology also leads to a hyper-individualized, hyper-competitive, dog-eat-dog society that denies the benefits of community, the public sector, the environment and the common good.
Unfortunately, our current economic system is rooted in a narrow, short-sighted and incomplete understanding of what constitutes wealth. True wealth is not just the money and the stuff we accumulate, but three other forms of wealth or capital — human, social and natural capital. Together, they form what the UN calls inclusive wealth.
Human capital is the sum of our individual capacities, which includes not only our health status but our knowledge, skills and experience, our capacity for innovation and creativity, our capacity for caring and compassion.
But while human capital is important, it does not stand alone, any more than individuals stand alone. We are a social species, and that sociability has been a key factor in our evolutionary success.
So a second form of wealth, closely linked to human capital, is social capital. While human capital is vested in individuals, social capital is all about the connections between us. Those connections begin with the informal web of social ties to family, friends, neighbours, work-mates and others that knit us together into communities.
There are also more formal forms of social capital: the massive investments we make in social programs — education, health, social services, unemployment insurance, recreation services and so on — that underpin our daily lives.
Then there is what I call “invisible social capital” — the legal, political and constitutional infrastructure that previous generations spent centuries creating, helping us govern ourselves largely peacefully.
But all of this is underpinned by what is beyond doubt the most important form of wealth: the Earth’s natural systems that are the bedrock not just of our existence, but of life on Earth.
Scientists have identified nine Earth systems that are critical to life, but have also found we have crossed six of the nine planetary boundaries, meaning we have been depleting this vital form of wealth.
So our true wealth is much more than money and stuff, the stunted, distorted, narrow understanding of wealth extolled by neoliberalism. It includes the richness of our collective human development, the strength of our social capital and the health of our planetary systems.
Real capitalists don’t just build one form of wealth — economic capital — by exploiting and harming the other forms of capital. They build all four forms of capital — human, social, natural and economic — simultaneously.
Unfortunately, there are not many real capitalists out there.
But a healthy future for all requires us to reject the harmful values and ideology of neoliberalism and find alternative values and a way of life that is fit for purpose in the 21st century.
We need to recognize and apply the wisdom and truth of these words from the World Wide Fund for Nature, in their 2014 Living Planet Report: “Ecosystems sustain societies that create economies. It does not work the other way around.”
Living in accord with this simple principle will require a transformation in the distorted core values that underpin our modern economy, society and way of life, as I noted in a series of columns in June and July.
The core values we need are, first, a reverence for the Earth and all it contains, an awareness of a connection to nature that is, at its heart, spiritual.
Second, we need a re-awakening of our sense of kinship with and shared responsibility for our fellow humans, a renewed sense of community. Third, we need to recognize that the economy is subservient to and in service to people and the planet, not the other way around.
These are the value shifts we need if we are to achieve a wellbeing society in which everyone thrives while we remain within planetary boundaries.
Next week, in my final weekly column before I transition to a monthly column, I will look at how that might be achieved as a society and locally, here in the Greater Victoria region.
Dr. Trevor Hancock is a retired professor and senior scholar at the University of Victoria’s School of Public Health and Social Policy
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