By 2050, Asia will have more than five billion people, while the European Union’s share of the global population will decline from 9% to 5%. Annual economic growth in Asia over the past 30 years has averaged 5%. Its GDP is projected to increase from $30 trillion to about $230 trillion by 2050. The balance of power in the twenty-first century is shifting – in social, economic, and, arguably, political terms – from west to east.
Read the rest at Project Syndicate
by Chandran Nair
(h/t Kevin Fathi via email)
(h/t Kevin Fathi via email)
Nair argues that the East cannot emulate the consumption model of the West owing to resource constraints and pollution concerns. This will involve modifying adoption of the Western liberal tradition in the East. Pursuit of maximum utility by individuals is not a human right in this view, even though it is a cardinal tenet of Western neoliberalism.
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2 comments:
When Mr. Nair decides to give up his washing machine and wash his cloths by hand then he can talk about how Western Imperial policy of low consumption is good for those lowly subhuman Asians who don't deserve a chance for a modern lifestyle.
Thankfully, no Asian nation after freeing themselves of this colonial clap trap will listen about how they can't have wealth.
The East will develop and living styles will rise and no power on Earth save nuclear bombs will stop them.
The Environmental destruction (i.e. WWIII) resulting from trying to stop development will make the cost of development look like nothing.
There nothing wrong with consumption if you are good and reusing and recycling, and recovery.
We are currency in waste recovery renaissance in terms of biomass recovery, synthetic crude, and hundreds of "green chemical" technologies and recovery processes now being discovered.
Practically everyday there's a new player on the block. Here's just one http://www.codexis.com/.
The only question is one of creating the necessary public infrastructure. The problem isn't resources it is ingenuity, proper economics, planning, and commitment to efficient technology.
I'm more worried about the West and it's anti-science technology, and modern infrastructure establishment than the East given the scientific backgrounds of the Indian and Chinese ruling classes.
Septeus7, what I thought interesting was the Niar's suggestion about economic rights as human rights. It is clear that there is a huge different of viewpoint in this and I don't think it is limited to the East. There are a lot of people in the West who think that max u is not a human right, while the prevailing notion is that it is a human right. This disagreement is going to come increasingly to the fore.
Of course, it would be obviated if technology permits a smooth transition to a consumption-based global economy. But I don't see things scaling up that quickly. There is going to be considerable friction over this, especially as climate change bites harder, which I expect to become a rising trend in the coming year.
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