2020 has turned out to be a turbulent year. As a society we are facing multiple systemic threats that trace to our economic system - COVID-19, climate change, wealth inequality, automation and a destabilized global order. At an earlier event in May - "Red hot in the red dot" we asked a group of environmental activists representatives from Europe, East Asia and Singapore what they perceived to be the biggest challenges to solving systemic challenges of our times. The responses reflected concern about low political engagement (apathy), how to resolve the competing interests between jobs and environment, strengthening democratic institutions and transparency in a single-party, politically restricted Singapore context and how to mobilize citizens for a grassroots movement.
In response to these questions, we decided to pull together available research on free market capitalism and current economic theory to help to tackle the big question of a sustainable economy. We hope to facilitate a conversation around Singapore's economic strategy that is better prepared to build back stronger and tackle the range of challenges we current face in the time of multiple crisis. We are offering three activities around the subject of the sustainable economy :
Social media conversations on Twitter, Medium, Facebook through series of weekly articles "Freedom for who?" a critique of free market capitalism.
Webinar discussion panel + discussion breakout groups for 1:30 on 19 Sep
Open letter on Singapore's future economic strategy to Minster Chan Chun Sing
The discussion on free market capitalism traces it's historical context as an ideology and strategy for economic policy and analyzes the consequences for highly urbanized advanced economies like Singapore. series "Freedom for who?" and prelude to an open letter to the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry on the future economic strategy for Singapore. To be sustainable in the long run, a new economic strategy is needed that is designed for the knowledge based service economy, deals directly with wealth inequality, maintains stable employment, moderate inflation, control of cross-border externalities, strengthens democratic institutions, includes citizen participation in policy design, strengthens ties to the region and less exposure to global volatility.
Open letter to Minister Chan Chun Sing
Freedom for who? series of articles on free market capitalism
Webinar format
Find out how to get involved
Open letter to Minister Chan Chun Sing on the future economy of Singapore
You are invited to join in writing an open letter to the Singapore government - Minister of Trade and Industry, Chan Chun Sing - on the future economic strategy for Singapore. The letter will be sent out with invitations for organizational endorsements in Nov and published publicly and delivered to the government by no later than 31 Dec 2020. The intent of the letter is to provide realistic recommendations that the Minister can act on, which reflect Singapore's long term core values, updated with the current state of the world and future trends, and supported by solid evidence from economics and other scientific fields. Contact us if you are interested to join the letter writing team to find out more details about guidelines, content, commitment and timing, etc...
Freedom for who? 4-week series of research articles on capitalism
The article series "Freedom for who?" is intended for an open minded audience with basic familiarity of economics and politics who is interested in a deep dive into the evidence from both sides. You are invited to contribute your opinion or ideas in the form of questions, critique or response essays. The articles consider multiple perspectives to analyze the claims with evidence from various economists and direct analysis of statistical outcomes. The outcomes from these conversations forms the basis for a revised economic strategy and the content of the open letter.
The first article "is greed good?" explores the challenge of engaging in good faith between opposing views on the issue, and peeks into some of the deeper questions in the ideology of economic freedom. The articles are consolidated into an open access report on Gitbook. The report is organized around the strengths and weaknesses of free-market capitalism with a continuity between the analysis of a basis set of sources used throughout the report and supplemented in each section with sections-specific sources. The report is divided into 13 sections and 4 Appendixes. Four appendices are added at the end to provide background introduction to free-market ideology and detailed analysis on subtopics of sociology and statistical analysis.
Webinar format
The Webinar is 1:30 min. You will have a chance to discuss with others on topics related to Singapore's future economy. The output from the discussion groups and the panel will be incorporated into the final report and the open letter. After the webinar the final report will be published online including all of the articles and you will have access to all of the materials.
Those interested in attending should RSVP using the form. Participants will be sent the Webinar particulars 1 week prior to the event.
How to get involved
To get involved, you can read, like, share the articles, contribute an essay or commentary on social media, RSVP to join as a participant in the Webinar, share your views about capitalism and economic policy in the survey, join the open letter writing team or help organize as an article editor or Webinar event organizer.
Check out the website page to follow the article series and get involved