“Those who propose replacing the top-down with the bottom-up may have a valid case.”
Tim Morgan, in his Surplus Energy Economics blog
We can’t imagine the future. But we can try and interpret where we are heading from what is going on now.
Top-down economic growth is over. It was nice while it lasted, even though it became dependent on borrowing. Which is not a political aspiration or policy. It is reality.
We now must get used to the fact that we are entering a post-growth era. We must begin to see the world differently.
The industrial era was a top-down growth-based hierarchical system that overlooked the bottom-up muddle of mostly retired people at the grassroots.
The top-down system grew whilst the grassroots slumbered.
We now know that discretionary markets and employment in the top-down system are shrinking, and prosperity is declining.
People are moving down from well-paid employment, driven by growth and profits, to lower-paid, simple lifestyles in the countryside.
This move from large multi-layered command and control organisations to self-employment at the grassroots explains how the economy is shrinking.
From the top down, it is an evolving future that cannot be understood. It is a complex, dynamic evolutionary process.
The grassroots is becoming alive, and It is evolving. Everywhere will be different. And that is nice.
This post first appeared in the RADIX think tank.
