By Rachel Berger on August 15, 2011

Tags: dynamic equilibrium economics, social change, visioning

For some years I have been concerned about how the UK, and eventually the world, might change to a truly sustainable economic system, away from the stated aim of continual growth. what that could look like, and how different groups in society would be affected by the transition. More recently, through my involvement with Living Witness, I have been thinking about what the Quaker contribution might be. So when Living Witness members were asked to think how we might contribute to YMG this year, I offered to run two option groups on this theme. Originally I intended to run them as consecutive, sessions but it became clear that people saw these as two separate, repeated sessions. I changed the title from ‘steady state economy’ to ‘dynamic equilibrium’ economy, at the suggestion of an economist in the group, who pointed out that equilibrium can never be steady – it involves movement in and out of balance.
After a few minutes silent workshop, to reflect on the question, I led a brief guided visioning, suggesting what the future might look like…
‘It is 2035. Finally, Britain and other developed nations are making big reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions. As a visitor to the future Britain, It is not clear whether the changed world you see has been achieved by government policy, or because of a collapse in the old order.
There are far fewer cars on the road, and those that are, are shared, and electric. Very few people fly now. Airships, suitable for mid-range distances, are coming into production.
As you walk round the cities and towns, you notice buildings labelled ‘Resource centre’ and ‘Community Workshop.’ At the resource centres, you learn that people can get tools and equipment, hiring them for a few days. The community workshops are places where people can use tools and workspaces for repairing household items, and also learn skills like carpentry, bicycle maintenance, and dressmaking.
There are shops, but fewer of them; it seems people buy less, and expect things to last well. You notice that much open space is now devoted to fruit and vegetable growing – gone are large areas of grass within parks. Even wide road verges are in cultivation.
On former industrial estates. ,many buildings are empty – this is still, apparently, a time of economic austerity. Where buildings are in use, the signs indicate various ‘green’ technologies.
As you leave the town and walk into the countryside, you notice how many more people there are on the land. It is not clear whether people are working their own land, or labouring on other people’s. Fields are being hoed, tractors are fewer. ‘
After this visioning, people were asked to form small groups of 4-6 and discuss two questions. Firstly, what might be some of the problems of the transition, and to identify groups that might be particularly vulnerable or suffer during the change, and then to ask, what might a specifically Quaker contribution be. The task was to focus not on the individual or local contribution, but on the national and international. The thoughts were then shared, and we closed with worship sharing where people reflected on what the session had meant to them.
In the first session, there were 36 people (choosing this topic instead of Tony Benn!), and in the second session, 45 or so, including a few people who had been on the previous evening as well.
Groups of people identified as likely to need special support included the following:
• City dwellers with no access to food-producing land
• Suburban dwellers farther from facilities
• workers who lost their jobs
• large-scale farmers
• poorer people, vulnerable people and those in poor health, pensioners
• people isolated physically or socially
• people most addicted to consumption
• those without practical skills for survival
• those fearful of change
• people who need to travel
Major issues likely to arise included:
• social infrastructure, if the tax base were to decline
• influx of immigrants from famine areas

In response to the question, what can Quakers do to help the transition to a ‘dynamic equilibrium’ economy, there were many suggestions:
• Mediation and conflict resolution
• Ethical governance
• Community development
• Offering quiet circles for economists and policy makers to explore alternative paradigms
• Speaking out about values underpinning society, and encouraging values to be a topic for discourse
• Raising questions about how much money people need to live well, and the positives of rationing goods.
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• Encouraging a changed attitude to employment – to encourage shorter weeks, and ¾ contracts, emppoloyment credits for voluntary work, with a supportive NI and tax system
• Exploring scenarios for a hard landing, and for a soft landing into a new economic system
• Lobbying at many levels:
o For a ‘Department of the Future’
o Sponsorship for researches into alternative economic futures
o for changes in school curriculum to support practical skills training
o For training in managing uncertainty
o For more resources for mediation and conflict resolution
o For restraints on consumption, other than price setting
o For minimum and maximum incomes
o For regulation of banks and advertising
o For independent media
o For a change in company law, requiring companies to promote community good, rather than merely maximise shareholder value
o For measurement of full social and environmental costs of production and for prices to reflect these
o For a carbon tax
o Against taxes on labour, moving taxes to ‘bads’
o For resources to enable developing countries to adapt, and enabling them to access green technology
o For a stronger UN
• Holding the government to account on delivering on the UK Climate Change Act
• Pressing for coordination of policy in the fields of power generation and food production
• Create a major interfaith alliance
Within BYM:
• Encouragement to Quakers to enter politics
• A Quaker think tank, bringing in expertise within the Society, to analyse many ideas
• Ensuring LMs and AMs are engaged in the work
• Quaker meeting houses to act as local resource centres
• Quakers to offer examples before lobbying
• Build a cohort of full time volunteer Quakers to work on the issue
In the light of the epistle for YMG, it seems our discussions were aligned well with the spirit in Canterbury, and I look forward to being part of increased Quaker activity to move our society away from the brink of disaster towards a healthier and more fulfilling way of life in the future.