Productive Economy, Contributory Economy

5“To Make Society” Therefore “To Exchange”

5.1. Exchanges and specializations

5.1.1. The end of the fear of missing out?

With sedentarization, humans tried to tame nature. Nature resisted and did not always give was expected of it. However, human life depends on it. We thus entered into the fear of lack, which incites us to produce more than necessary. The so-called “Western” model of society was shaped in the United States during the 20th century by the children of European migrants who experienced hunger before leaving their homelands and during the boat trip to the “new world”, and then finally once there, before they developed functioning agriculture.

This fear of not having enough to eat is reflected in the size of American plates: they are 16% larger than traditional European plates. The size of American plates is becoming more common, despite the fact that the spectre of famine is fading, but not forgotten.

Today, we can take a more mature approach to nature and the fear of scarcity. We may have some difficulty in anticipating seismic movements, we are trying to protect ourselves against meteorites, we are not good at predicting pandemics, but we are beginning to anticipate climatic disasters. We are getting better at protecting and preserving foodstuffs, and we know how to assess the risks of shortages and overproduction. In the case of manufactured goods, we are able to adjust our production capacities.

We will be able to consider our capacity to redistribute wealth ...