A STEP BY STEP APPROACH TO A BETTER WORLD

While some of the contributors to this group, have given us their ideas for
a more equitable, just and wise world-wide government, others have used an
astounding wealth of detailed historical knowledge, in order to determine,
when and where the next great war might take place. 
As a person lacking the academic background for such learned discussions, I
have asked myself whether simple logic and common sense could not be
applied to these problems.
>From such a viewpoint one would conclude that
1. such an ideal government is not at all likely to miraculously appear in
the foreseeable future and
2. that if we do not succeed to forestall such a great war, it might throw
us back into the dark ages or erase mankind once and for all.

Though it might be impossible to find a total solution to our great
problems through an ideal world government any time soon, humans are
generally patient enough to be satisfied, it they see, that some progress
is being made towards attending these problems one by one and little by
little. We could try to find out, whether we might be able to contribute
something towards this end I beg to submit a few ideas for discussions: 

We could start with arguments on up to what point free markets and free
trade must be interfered with, in order to alleviate the enormous
inequalities in wealth between industrialized and developing countries and
between the citizens of such countries, while allowing them to continue
rationalizing production and creating wealth. The demonstrations in Seattle
have proved, that concerned voters and citizens can stop the trend towards
excessive globalization at least temporarily. That of course is not enough,
what is needed is to induce governments to name representatives to the WTO
and the IMF, who take the interests of workers and poor people into
account. Under such circumstances, the policies first advocated by Lord
Keynes for dampening the business cycle and finding useful work for the
unemployed could again become predominant.

An other point would be to compare the almost desperate situation in Russia
with what China was able to achieve under similar circumstances. It might
be useful to remember an expression by Jeffrey Sachs, a prominent Western
advisor to Russia: YOU CANNOT CROSS AN ABYSS WITH LITTLE STEPS. With this
seemingly reasonable words, he was able to convince the Russian authorities
to attempt an immediate and complete adoption of a market economy, without
counting with the needed legislation, institutions and other human
resources. The lack of such vital resources was probably the main reason
for the disastrous outcome of this changeover. China on the other hand used
such little steps through creating special economic zones, where their
meager resources could be concentrated and where different policies could
be tried out. In my opinion, even at this late date, Russia could still
benefit from this experience, through creating similar privileged zones,
where they would try to establish all conditions needed for a successful
working of a market economy. Another policy they could try out would be to
establish local and regional barter exchanges, where the many plants with
outdated machinery and technologies, who are unable to sell their products
for money, could exchange them among each other.

Hopefully many more and better ideas for a step by step approach towards a
better world will be forthcoming.

Greetings               Paul Riesz