Carving out new paths

In the face of social and environmental disaster generated by the process of concentrating wealth and decision-making power, humanity faces the enormous challenge of carving out new directions. How to do it?

The concentrating operation of wealth and decision-making power today severely punishes almost two-thirds of humanity while favoring only 1% of the world’s population. It destroys nature by affecting the functioning of the planet. Social and environmental risks are growing at unsustainable levels.

There are other ways of functioning that each society will need to evaluate by choosing those that better adapt to their singularities. There are no single recipes. It will be necessary to understand how the mechanisms of appropriation of wealth that reach the present have developed throughout history. The social and environmental degradation caused requires establishing other paths, that is, a referential utopia that makes explicit what needs to be transformed. Taking what history teaches and the direction defined in the referential utopia it will be possible to develop effective transformative trajectories in the short and medium term.    

Understanding history

Starting from a full understanding of the historical development of each country in terms of the generation and appropriation of wealth and, linked to this, how decision-making power was concentrated, it will be possible to unmask the deceptive basis that sustains the present reality. It is not enough to know only the official history biased by those who were and are conquerors, but also the various historical interpretations that exist. This set of investigations shows how the modalities of appropriation and submission were structured and functioned in each phase. It is an essential effort to make because the history told by the rulers is known, but much less the unofficial one.

Each historical moment is plagued by antagonistic and secondary conflicts that come to us biased by historians with different ideological perspectives. Thus, some facts are highlighted and others skimped on or disfigured; however, in one way or another, they all contributed to formatting the dynamics that followed. Understanding and unmasking what happened, the history that time thickens, is essential when trying to carve out new directions. The present does not result from nothing but from how the recent past and previous phases were given.

The contending forces used agreements and impositions. It is important to clarify who confronted each other and which prevailed, how these events conditioned the following phases. In particular, what happened to the voices and subjugated cultures of the original peoples and of those who arrived as migrants from the world.       

The unmasked history of the hidden and deceptive serves to try to carve out new directions. It does not show scenarios for returning to the past, but rather demonstrates injustices, absurd punishments, open or stealthy forms of appropriation of wealth and decision-making power. Such recognition is essential to understanding what needs to be transformed.

The desired new

Carving out new paths requires outlining what is desired, recognizing that the new implies a complex flow of dynamics and not a static immobile. It will be necessary to elaborate a referential utopia that establishes refoundational criteria of equity and justice, the care of the entire humanity and the planet which were irresponsibly attacked. The modalities of governance and management will vary according to the singularities of each country and moment.

The image of the desired future will be the reference that guides the march. It works as a collective compass so as not to get lost in the torrents of flows and events. In any case, it can be adjusted over time always preserving the foundational criteria.

The focus of the referential utopia is to transform the concentrating dynamic by favoring environmental care and offering support to all population segments of society. It is impossible to perpetuate that minorities alienated in their greed and opulence live at the expense of the rest. The immense fortunes they amassed need to be redirected to serve the middle and popular sectors. There will be various ways to achieve this that will be an essential part of the new trajectories.    

The trajectories forward

Carving out new paths requires defining the trajectories to be taken forward. Based on the lessons of history and the direction demarcated by the referential utopia, it is time to formulate sets of immediate measures and the mediate ones that will follow.    

Trajectories must open new paths from the beginning. The refoundation cannot be postponed because it is necessary to seal a new direction, if it does not do so, risks and uncertainties arise. It will be necessary to skillfully propose the set of start-up measures to reinforce the sustainability of the chosen orientation; it shows that political agreements are taken into account in order to be able to adopt the necessary decisions. 

The trajectories contain sets of measures to implement the new paths. We point out some of them, those of a foundational nature.

A measure with immediate repercussions is to close the criminal drain of resources to jurisdictions that operate as tax havens. It involves stopping tax evasion and elusion by corporations and high-income families. This drain of ill-gotten resources seriously compromises the availability of public revenues. It can be carried out in the short-term using current legislation and a firm group of administrators.    

Another priority aspect is to decide who should assume greater tax contributions, those who amassed incredible fortunes, not the lower-middle and popular sectors. A first measure is to establish a tax on the personal assets and income of billionaires of between 3 and 5% per year. These resources would be used to finance the modern development of the popular economy, public health and education, science and technology, and social emergency. 

In this perspective, it is necessary to transform the regressive tax structure. The distribution of the tax burden must be reversed so that the greatest contributions are assumed by those who have the greatest wealth and those who have less are not punished.

It is also required to redirect public spending towards financing strategic projects for national development and the serious social debt.

Public accounts must be managed effectively without falling into fiscal deficits that can be avoided through contributions from the wealthiest sectors instead of punishing middle- and low-income sectors.

From the beginning, it will be necessary to regulate the actions of large investment funds, such as, for example, establishing “golden shares” in the hands of the public sector which, financed with part of its taxes, would ensure better criteria in its actions.

It will also be a priority to dismantle oligopolistic exploitation where leading companies in value chains impose prices and commercial conditions to appropriate values that belong to suppliers, consumers, and the State.

Trajectories need to include regulations of the financial system to eliminate the merely speculative and guide its institutions to finance the real economy.

These fundamental changes of the new strategies must include the de-monopolization of the media and judicial systems to end the impunity of looters and corrupt people.

Abusive centralisms should be replaced by empowering the entire national territory with equity.

Elaborating these trajectories implies facing antagonistic confrontations; secondary conflicts are resolved through direct dialogue, validating the participation of those committed to the new paths. The causes of conflicts and disagreements will have to be resolved by attending to desires, needs, and interests.

Carving out new directions are not linear processes because unanticipated events always appear. In some cases, limits of ignorance may be reached that will have to be acknowledged.  These are difficult instances that require explaining results and risks with the firm determination to stay the course by adjusting the march or the timeframe when circumstances require them.

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