Economy of Happiness

About a month ago, I watched “The Economics of Happiness”, a documentary on social change. The film features many voices from six continents calling for systematic economic change. It argues that economic globalization has led to a massive expansion in the scale and power of big business and banking. At the same time the consolidation of corporate power has exacerbated fundamentalism, ethnic conflict, financially instability and unemployment. According to the documentary, the list of the problems economic globalization has worsened doesn't end here, there are personal costs as well. Consequently, in order to prevent the world from further distruction, communities are coming together to rebuild more human scale, ecological communities based on a new paradigm – an economics of localization.

We are facing an enviromental crisis, an economic crisis, and a crisis of the human spirit. That is the intoduction to the film. Social, ecological and personal well being should be on the top of our priorities list as a human race. It's a huge misconception to think of consumer culture as a sustainable way of life. When we look back in time, it's easy to tell the huge difference between the past and present, as long as humanity is concerned. The gap between rich and poor keeps widening, outside economic pressure becomes more and more intense over the years which leads to stressful lives, filled with anxiety and depression. Another misconception about globalization is that it breaks down global boarders and brings the world together, it unites cultures. That is a very superficial image. As it is stressed on the film, at its core, globalization is an economic process which focuses on profits and not people.

Millennials, people who were born in early 80's till 2000, is a generation that has been raised by globalization. My generation. Commercials and television are behind every big corporation that dominates the world, corporations that suggest to us how to dress, what to eat and drink - indicate what is right and what wrong. Borrowed opinions on how the world should be and function, substituted critical thinking and common sense. Cultures have started to lose their identities, their roots. That has led to extreem social phenomenons such as racism, discriminations, fascism and even terrorism. Instead of united nations with shared values that work together in harmony under healthy competitiveness, modern times are characterized by ethnic conflicts and manipulated masses.

Returning to primitive ages and cancelling globalization isn't the solution to this problem. We need to find ways to wipe out the negative effects of this phenomeno. Promoting localization could be step one. Also, new businesses should be built on a human scale, on a new entepreneural model whose cause will not be making the entrepreneur rich but having an actual social impact in the world. Cynicism isn't the way to go any more. People should join forces and create marvellous things. This should be personal drive for every single person on this planet. United we stand, divided we fall.

I have no country to fight for, my country is

the Earth, I am a citizen of the world.

Eugene Debs