The Election's Over, Time to Build the New Economy

 By Anna Manzo

OK, now that the election's over, what's next?
  
John Cavanagh and Robin Broad have written an excellent round-up of some of the best viewpoints and plans of action from the progressive community in their article, "It's the New Economy, Stupid" published in The Nation.

Cavanagh and Broad write: 

"What many progressive advocates are calling a 'new economy' framework emphasizes not just new jobs but also new policies that simultaneously create a fair economy, a clean environment and a strong democracy."

The authors could have perhaps taken all this a step further. To me, at the most basic, a new economy at its most basic champions not just human rights, but as means of meeting human developmental needs in order for all to fulfill their true human potential.  In essence, turning away from a fragmented, scarcity mindset, to one of health in an integrated "mind, body and spirit."

It's not difficult to envision. An economy that focuses on meeting human development needs allows the potential for an altruistic society. In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a theory of human development needs that must be met before altruism can develop in the individual.

In politics, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had also developed an "economic bill of rights," in which he includes the right to a job where one earns enough for food, clothing and recreation, the right to a decent home, the right to education, and the right to medical care.

But it was only after his death, and the end of World War II that his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt was able persuade the General Assembly of the United Nations to adopt a resolution endorsing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This video by Signature Illustration is an example of how championing individual human rights improves society:



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Many conservatives and negative minds in today's downsized, frantic economy who are running the office or in politics actually believe that "people are not nice." These leaders have adopted a "me first" attitude; some even try to sabotage others and become power mongers over what they believe is their piece of the pie. They chastise others as "lazy slackers who believe they are entitled."

In essence, these individuals have given up on humanity. They have become stagnant, subsisting in an "old economy, survivalist mentality" that has been fragmented by centuries-old leadership beset by "divide and conquer" strategies and tactics of the kind that reigned on the battlefield.

The masculine traits of patriarchy and conquest had its place in human evolution as a whole, but those are complementary to the feminine traits of nurturing and diplomacy. Both played their role in millennia of painstaking evolution. Fulfilling human developmental needs – physical, emotional, cultural, intellectual and spiritual – have led to the philosophies and political structures of democracy, including the recognition of human rights, that have manifested in today's scientific advances around the globe that allow us to communicate, share ideas and help one another as never before in human history.

The world should no longer be the scary place that our collective ancestors knew as they waged war through our human history over so-called scarce resources.

True leaders will help the world's people develop and fulfill their human potential, integrating "mind, body and spirit" in a 21st century world that is altruistic, loving and compassionate – the only reasons humanity exists on this tiny planet in this vast universe.