■ TRUE WELFARE
“..True Welfare is achieved when communities live without fear and with confidence in the future. Within communities each individual is treated fairly and can develop and grow..” Max van der Sleen
Why True Welfare Creation?
The economic system we believed in has been shaken to its core. We begin to realise that we follow a pathway into a dead end street. We need to change the way we think about value and start creating True Welfare. The vast majority of the current generation of top executives and non-executive board members grew up with a set of unshakeable beliefs. 1) Macro- economic stability, free trade and free markets result in continuous growth; 2) In due course the benefits of growth trickle down sufficiently to help eradicate poverty; and 3) Emancipation and mankind’s collective ability to learn at an ever increasing pace give us the technologies needed to act in time to address the global stresses that surface (water, food, energy, migration, health, bio-diversity and ecosystem services).These unshakeable beliefs have crumbled in the aftermath of the global banking crisis of 2008. We now know that macro-economic stability must be linked to prudent use of credit. Free markets have failed to allocate resources in line with their true scarcities; and we increasingly overexploit our natural and social capital.
We must reconsider the way we have thought about value creation. Our material welfare performance metrics have been inflated by two facts: (i) we borrowed money to consume today what should have been earned and consumed in the future; and (ii) we have not paid for the full social and environmental costs associated with our lifestyles. Continuing on this path is a dead end street.
How to create True Welfare?
Changes are happening but they are slow. To speed up the process and start creating True Welfare today investmensts are needed which have a positive contribution to the triple bottom line. Private enterprise, social housing associations real estate developers and financial institutions all have key roles to play in the transition towards a new world which meets our True Welfare needs, We gradually move towards a greener, low carbon, circular, innovative economy which will again provide the future generations with employement and income to meet their needs; an economy which will support a healthy environment safety and social justice. However, the process is slow, too slow. The power to speed up the transition process lies in changing processes, conventions and above all in investments; Investments are needed in the development of the new products and supply chains which are sustainability proof i.e. reflect "true welfare benefits and costs" and are designed to make a positive true welfare contribution.