The Audacity of Consensus
"It names-without-naming the problem if we 'go back to normal', which means returning to the underlying economic framework we’ve been following since 1980: The Washington Consensus. That’s the playbook for late 20th century capitalist economic growth and it had a zero tolerance policy for veering away from the principles of lower taxation, freer and more global trade, fewer rules and regulations for business, and more privatization of public assets. In short, more market, less government. The only measure of success was making more money, not the impact on people’s lives."
"The eight recommendations of the Cornwall Consensus basically reverse the thrusts of the Washington Consensus. You’ve probably already heard about the 15% corporate minimum tax idea. There’s also a growing focus on what we can do at home, for each other. That includes addressing cyber-security and privacy issues, improving health care strategies (population and public health for the win!), and puts global supply chains and trade on the table. But perhaps most strikingly, the Cornwall Consensus wraps with a focus on the people who do the work!"
"This recommendation is also breathtakingly clear that the goal is not just how to get more people into the labour market, but how they could thrive, not just in the G7, but in the supply chains that feed the G7 economies and citizens. Increasing access to decent work opportunities, enforcing labour standards that are on the books and improving those standards, empowering and protecting collective rights, and measuring success with metrics that go beyond GDP, trade, investment, profits and inflation: this is how we know if we are creating economic resilience, for individuals and for societies. Promoting economic growth, and tracking how much money got made, just isn’t enough anymore."
Future of Workers, June 11, 2021: "The audacity of consensus," by Armine Yalnizyan
YouTube, June 11, 2021: "The audacity of consensus," by Atkinson Foundation, (2:02, Video)
G7, May 31, 2021: G7 Panel on Economic Resilience, (9 pages, PDF)
Photo Source: Stern, Mathieu. (2020). Untitled [Photograph]. Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/1zO4O3Z0UJA