John Michael Greer writes about the costs of economic growth:
the cascading failures of the managerial elite that claims just now in the teeth of the evidence to be able to lead the world to a better future. Those failures have happened, and are continuing to happen, because the world is too complex to understand rationally. It is so full of unpredictable variables and intricate feedback loops that no degree of human expertise, no set of abstract principles, no concept of world order can provide accurate predictions and allow the creation of a viable and productive order on a global scale. The laughter of wolves, John Michael Greer, 20 March 2024
I agree wholeheartedly - except that I don't believe 'accurate predictions' are necessary. The Social Policy Bond approach does not require accurate predictions: it requires and encourages constant adaptation to changing circumstances in order to achieve targeted outcomes. An evolutionary path towards society's ends. As Mr Greer says, the managerial elite (government, big corporations) can't do this: their interests are not the same as society's and they are too wedded to existing structures and ways of doing things. But what our managerial elite can do is articulate society's wishes and raise the funds for their achievement. No - I agree with Mr Greer - it can't actually achieve them: the complexities make that impossible. But it can reward their achievement, and this is what Social Policy Bonds would do.
Mr Greer has another suggestion:
That doesn’t mean that human beings can’t co-create a relatively stable, successful, thriving order in the world. It just means that this project is best pursued on a local level, relying on personal experience, folk wisdom, and close attention to local conditions. Those are exactly what the effete managerial aristocracy that thinks it runs the world can’t provide.
It's an appealing idea and, actually, not necessarily different from Social Policy Bonds which, if issued with care could encourage exactly such local level initiatives, though with more co-ordination and coherence. Sadly, both ideas require our elites to target society's goals (rather than their own), and to relinquish the power to dictate how things shall be done and whom shall be rewarded for getting them done. And that would require our elites to change their thinking, or to be replaced. Both are unlikely, unfortunately.
