A new approach to economics is essential to understand and master the changing nature of the world. Humans have mastered or at least learned to predict and cope with natural issues. Food is plentiful, even with a high global population. People are moving to cities everywhere, meaning that daily life is defined by interactions with people more than with the natural world.

People’s Economics is about mastering that world.

Our life, and the lives of everyone around the planet, are defined more and more by technology. Will this enrich our lives or enslave us? Will it make people happy or redundant? The answers to these questions are the difference between a future dystopia and a time of great abundance.  It is essential for the implementation of Industry 4.0 as well.

It takes skills.

Developing nations have one important thing in common. In every case, their success has been directly related to their ability to see their population not as a lot of hungry mouths to feed or a potential rebellion, but for what they really are. The skill and drive of the people are the greatest resource of every nation.

The wealth of nations today is entirely about the success of their populations.

There are many success stories to learn from since the end of the era of industrial nationalism and the development of global markets. This process started with the end of World War II and the international agreements which made the world as we know it possible. They have lifted billions out of poverty and secured a future which is brighter and happier for many.

But how does this continue to the next level? How does it become a reliable system?

You’re declaring all this income, right?

This is exactly what People’s Economics is about. Like this process, it starts with open markets. A truly open market is defined by the information it needs to to accessible and transparent. In turn it produces much more than goods and services, it produces information that people can use.

It is vital that this information be constantly absorbed and put to good use, however. It includes information about new skills and opportunities which people can use to develop themselves and increase their own potential. This is the heart of technology and the process of mastering it through personal development.

These skills require constant investment, however. The investment has to come in the form of a commitment to genuine equality of opportunity for everyone as well as the infrastructure which is necessary to take advantage of them.

Investment, for its part, depends on risk analysis and a stable system which can be relied on. People must be able to live in the long term, and without a commitment to stability investment of time and money is much more difficult. This is why dynamic stability is critical.

Ultimately, however, the more connected the systems of our world become the more stable they will be. Connection is all about trust, which is fueled by and encourages reliability.

To complete the cycle, connection is what defines open markets.

Together. It will be different.

This is why the Five Points, really Five Virtues, of People’s Economics come as a package. They work together to define a world which masters technology and puts it to good use for the happiness of people.

Economics, as we understand it, is more than just sociology with a way of keeping score. It is a way of organizing the world to deal with scarce resources. A world based on technology is a world defined by, or at least moving towards, abundance. A new kind of economics is necessary for this new kind of world. It has to be a world which manages the one resource which is always scarce in the sense that it can always sbe developed more.

That resource is skill. That resource is the greatest resource of any nation, it’s people. And that is why we need to have a People’s Economics.