Contents of the Current Issue

Back Issues

Online Indexes:
Author Index A-L
Author Index M-Z
Index of News Articles

Reprints/ Permissions

Writer's Guidelines

Send a Letter to the Editor

Top 10 Forecasts From Outlook 2004 Report

About This Issue
by Cindy Wagner, Managing Editor

Economic Paradigms in Transition

One problem with change that is becoming increasingly troublesome is the inability of economic systems to keep up, as two articles in this issue illustrate.

Technologies that allow music lovers to listen to their favorite songs without handling a physical product, such as a compact disc, have put the recording industry into turmoil. Once music is created, it can be digitized, becoming more like information than commodity. Then, it can be (and frequently is) freely shared, leaving creators and distributors unpaid for the service they provided.

As futurist Eric Garland points out, the economic paradigm of digital music is changing, only very slowly and painfully for creators of music dependent on the old paradigm. Garland believes that musicians can make the new paradigm work for them by bypassing traditional distribution channels (such as record company executives and commercial radio DJs) and communicating more directly with their audiences. (See "Online Music: The Sound of Success," page 24 of the print edition.)

Old economic paradigms are also contributing to environmental problems, and business as usual is a recipe for disaster, argues Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute. In developing countries, for instance, the formula for well-being once consisted of having as many children as possible to ensure the survival of at least some breadwinners who would then care for aging parents. But new technologies have helped lower infant mortality rates, and the strategy of having many children now strains the very resources that underpin the global economy. A new paradigm is needed that honestly examines all the costs and benefits of economic activity, Brown argues in "A Planet Under Stress: Rising to the Challenge" (see page 18).

Order the November-December 2003  issue or  join the World Future Society for $45 per year and receive THE FUTURIST, Futurist Update, Future Times, and many other benefits.

Send comments about our web pages to: webmaster@wfs.org
All contents Copyright © 2003 WORLD FUTURE SOCIETY, 7910 Woodmont Avenue, Suite 450, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Tel. 301-656-8274. E-mail info@wfs.org. Web site http://www.wfs.org.
All rights reserved.