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Scientific paper

Text

Plea for a flexible economy

Author:
Willem Hoogendyk

Entry type:
Scientific paper

Year of publication:
2014

Publishers:
Degrowth Conference Leipzig 2014

Language:
English

Abstract: The money-driven growth has created a compulsion to produce and consume. The rich and emerging countries have become its prisoner. We should calm-down, regionalize and democratize the economy while turning money from master into servant. We need a frugal economy, no longer of supply and push, but geared to a demand within ecological bounds. Production should be flexible. Demand for countless goods and services fluctuates, so enterprises should also fluctuate without having to close down immediately they fall behind in the rat race. This would mean a. making the remuneration of capital flexible, by tying enterprises and financiers closer together, and b. making the workforce flexible, by diversifying the sources of income of most workers (so that many will have more than one job). It will result in a liberation of the business world and of all of us. Under the official economy, we should build-up a more self-sufficient economic sector, flexible and more in the hands of the people, with useful work for everyone. It has already started everywhere!

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