Why We Should Not Let the Present Global Crisis Go Waste and Make Positive Changes

Never Let a Serious Crisis Go Waste

The Chinese term for crisis is a combination of danger and opportunity, which means that a crisis is a good time for opportunity as well.

In other words, whenever we are confronted by a crisis whether it is personal or collective, we have the chance to make serious changes in the way we use the inherent opportunity afforded by the crisis. Therefore, we must not let go of the opportunity that the present global economic crisis affords us and so, we should use this as a chance to introduce meaningful and concrete reforms to the way the global economy works. This can take the form of introducing new regulations, adopting a proactive approach that would preclude such crises from happening in the future, and make the global financial system more robust and less prone to instability.

Indeed, none other than the former White House Chief of Staff and current mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emmanuel has said that one must not let go of a serious crisis and waste the chance to reform the global financial system.

Making Long Overdue Changes to Capitalism

The long overdue changes that are needed for capitalism to rejuvenate itself can be made now which means that a blueprint for a robust and less unstable global financial system can be evolved. These changes include making the participants be more ethical and more value driven instead of profits driven as well as making the global financial system resilient and not contingent on the actions of a few. What this means is that we can make the global financial system more participative, spread the benefits of global finance across the world, remove the predators, and give more opportunities for the creators of wealth.

In other words, this is the right time to make all those changes that have been suggested by experts all along and as the crisis makes people more receptive to changes, we should not let go of the opportunity to make some serious changes to the way global finance works and to the way, the global economy is managed. This is the most important lesson that policymakers around the world must learn and must take a cue from the voices emanating from all parts of the world to reform and rehabilitate the global economy.

Transforming the Crisis into Opportunity

The metaphor of a locust and a bee is apt when one describes the workings of the global economy. The bees are very valuable to human civilization because they pollinate the crops and make farmers and agriculturists happy at the beginning of the crop season.

In contrast, the locusts prey upon the crops and reduce the yields to the farmers. Similarly, the global economy has creators of wealth and catalysts for change like the bees and it also has the locusts that destroy the wealth and feed off the wealth created by others through patience and hard work. Therefore, we must use the crisis to reduce the power of the locusts as much as possible if not eliminate them completely and we must give more power to the bees so that the creative aspects are enhanced.

It has been said that capitalism passes through a process of creative destruction wherein it periodically reinvents and rejuvenates itself. This is the best time for capitalism to rejuvenate itself as the locusts have grown in importance over the last few decades at the expense of the bees. The implications for policymakers are clear and the way to go is to introduce far-reaching changes to the way capitalism works.

Concluding Remarks

Finally, the present crisis affords us with a real opportunity to tackle the long pending problems of the social and environmental costs of capitalism and to address these problems; there cannot be a better time than now. This is the conclusion that this article reaches and it is hoped that we use this crisis to set right the wrongs and clean up our acts so that future generations prosper.

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