Greed Doesn't Work: About the Jan-Feb 2013 FUTURIST

We would be in a Golden Age for innovation, were it not for beggar-thy-neighbor national policies in the global innovation race. Encouraging the theft of intellectual property, discriminating against foreign tech firms, and manipulating currency are among the practices referred to as innovation mercantilism.

As authors Robert D. Atkinson and Stephen J. Ezell point out, such practices are inefficient at the global level, making the world economy as a whole more fragile. In January-February 2013 issue of THE FUTURIST, they offer a three-step strategy for “Building the Global Innovation Economy.”

The land on which to grow food and fuel is another resource that nations are competing for in ways that are arguably unfair. The “global land grab” that Lester R. Brown describes is not a new phenomenon, but it accelerated in recent years as high prices led more wealthy countries like Saudi Arabia and China to stake claims in poorer countries like Cambodia and Ethiopia.

Despite chronic hunger in these target countries, the farmers are forced to give up their acreage because they are too poor to cultivate it. Brown calls for better oversight on these international land deals, as well as food and energy policies that could improve resource security for everyone, not just the mighty. (See “Food, Fuel, and the Global Land Grab.”)

Some of these resource shortages—especially clean water and affordable energy—could lead to new forms of crime in the future, warns Gene Stephens. “Water wars” are a long-predicted outcome of shortages, but be on the lookout for water terrorism and threats of infrastructure sabotage (See “Crime in the Year 2030.”)

Cooperation is the antidote to crisis, as we can see in our own families, observes James H. Lee. The immediate social crisis facing developed countries like the United States is the aging of populations. Yet, families are pulling together to meet multiple challenges, and they are becoming more resilient as a result.

And society as a whole is becoming more creative in meeting these multiple challenges, thanks to the innovativeness of baby boomers and stronger ties among multiple generations. We may even see the rise of a “wisdom culture, marked by tolerance and maturity,” Lee predicts. (See “Eldering: Aging with Resilience.”)

Cynthia G. Wagner is editor of THE FUTURIST.

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