Beyond Leadership: Balancing Economics, Ethics and Ecology, Revised Edition

Expansion of the Public Economy

The second change in the economic structure will be an expansion of the public economy. Expansion of the public economy refers to an increase in the public side of economic activities, with the emphasis on economic activity for the public benefit rather than on profits to be made. This expansion of the public economy will occur in four ways.

Strengthening of the infrastructure

The first form of expansion will be the strengthening of the infrastructure. In the current industrial society, gas, water, communications, roads, parks, and schools are typical examples of the infrastructure. But in the information society many other kinds of facilities and services will become important parts of the infrastructure. The most significant, needless to say, will be the information utilities.

In the information society, information utilities will be the driving force of social development. The information utilities themselves will basically assume the nature of an infrastructure, which alone will become a decisive factor in the transformation of the economic structure from the present private economy into a public economy in the information society.

In addition, lands may also become part of the infrastructure because these are limited basic resources that will take on the character of public assets, as a result of the separation of land ownership from use.

Of special note as infrastructure will be do-it-yourself facilities. These will be public facilities where ...