In thinking about mankind’s future, one can be either an optimist or a pessimist. Let’s start with an optimistic mindset. Taking a long view of mankind’s history, humans have moved far beyond the Neanderthal stage and today homo sapiens are the dominant human species. Humans have passed through the hunter/gatherer stage, the […]
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The Sarasota Institute is focusing on how COVID-19 may affect some of the 10 categories listed across the top of this web site. We are having virtual mini-symposiums on several of these during April and May. In addition, we are publishing thought pieces taking looks into the future. Here is a column about […]
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[Preamble – As a futurist my mind is exploding with all the possible long-term disruptions inherent in the global COVID-19 reality. In addition, I have supplemented my 200+ inbound emails, content aggregators, research newsletters with some information provided to me by friends who are connected at the highest level of health executives nationwide.] Short-term […]
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Mankind is faced with a profound dilemma. To resist growth is to risk economic collapse. To continue to pursue growth relentlessly ensures collapse of our ecosystem which supports all life. For the most part, this dilemma goes unrecognized. All of our institutions continually point in the wrong direction. Those that do recognize the dilemma […]
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The American culture is very comfortable using the words “consumers” and “consumerism.” If I called my friend a consumer and producer, he would not object. In his company, he is a producer. He would say that by producing, he is able to consume. The more successful he is in producing, the more he would be […]
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[ NOTE: This is a chapter excerpt from David Houle’s latest book, the first of an eBook trilogy entitled “Moving to a Finite Earth Economy – Crew Manual”. The subtitle of the first eBook is the name of this chapter, The Three Economies. All three books are to be priced at $2.99. Book 1 is […]
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Today, most nations judge their yearly progress by the measure called Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This measure captures the dollar value of all the goods produced by its businesses, and as we have written about previously at The Sarasota Institute, the concept of GDP needs to be scrapped or revised. The assumption is that […]
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The developed countries of the world are in transition from economies based upon ownership to ones increasingly based upon rental or access. As much as any other trend, this will transform economics, consumption and how we live. The concept of ownership is deeply embedded in economic thought, policy and practice and has been for centuries. […]
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Just after the election of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States I had many conversations with colleagues and friends. Regardless of people’s political persuasion, most expressed some confusion about the future direction of global politics given the unusual nature of Trump as a candidate. Was he, is he, crazy like a fox, […]
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This is a time when we need fresh thinking on how to organize our society to a better job of serving our people. There are too many citizens who have lost faith in our government, in big business, and our other institutions. They have seen President Trump call our media “dishonest,” our justice system […]
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