DOES THE ECONOMY HAVE TO BE REBUILDED OR REOPENED? (2nd part)

DOES THE ECONOMY HAVE TO BE REBUILDED OR REOPENED? (2nd part)

"The international community must redesign and rebalance its economies and societies after the Covid-19 pandemic, which" exposed global fragility "on issues that go well beyond health." (Engº António Guterres - Secretary-General of the United Nations)

In this regard, we do not know of any SOCIAL IMPACT STUDY of the multiple “subsidization” measures, approved by the government, both for people and for companies… .we are “lestos” to highlight the economic impacts, the financial impacts and even, for being in fashion, environmental impacts, but the predictions of social impacts that such policy measures entail do not exist! It should be noted that our references do not involve only and only the political actors, who in general “suffer” from a high “deficit” in technical preparation, but it does cause some strangeness, the non-involvement in these matters of the multiple technicians from the various areas which, perhaps, show some unpreparedness in transforming their strategic ideas and projects that they theoretically and regularly disseminate, but that would not resist the social framework that they intend to involve and, perhaps for this reason, avoid dwelling on such social impacts that should prevail over all the others. (economic, financial and environmental).
If we consider that financial resources are scarce, as well as environmental resources, perhaps it is time to make these resources compatible with the valorization of human knowledge and prioritize and frame the evaluation of policy measures with a prevalence of enhancing not only the value of knowledge, but also
the revaluation of professional knowledge of the human workforce qualified as “undifferentiated”.
We have no doubt that in a social state the dimension of social vulnerability is one of the components of society that will have to be subsidized by public economic resources, but it should always be made compatible with the assessment of the social return of these policy measures - that is, subsidization should have always in return for the provision of social services and / or the necessary revaluation of professional knowledge.
In reality in Portugal and in some other countries with some dimension in social policies, we are continually overwhelmed with massive information, with a lot of emphasis on the economy and finance, and sometimes on the environmental level, which are undoubtedly very important. However, we have to be able to think and discern the structural trends that mark the change and, perhaps because of that, we have to give more time and due attention, namely to the areas of social sciences, biology, epidemiology and health that are vital. to think about the complexity of the world and be able to identify and anticipate risks. "As tragic as the past few weeks have been, however difficult, frightening and uncertain, this moment represents an incredible opportunity for people to wake up and to work together for change." (Barack Obama, former US President)

DOES THE ECONOMY HAVE TO BE REBUILDED OR REOPENED?

DOES THE ECONOMY HAVE TO BE REBUILDED OR REOPENED?

The discussion is launched, and not only among “political economists”, from two words that “seem to hide” their true political meaning and that involve those who defend the “immediate opening of the economy” and those who “defend that there take the opportunity to rebuild the economy ”. The reality is that the concept of "reopening" is being connoted with "conservative and neoliberal economists and politicians" and the concept of "rebuilding" is defended by "innovative economists and politicians and defenders of the social state".
 As someone has already said "this is not for fun, in this world in crisis, and if we do nothing the future will be bleak". To avoid it and think about solutions, we must look at the possible worlds contained in the reality we face.
First of all, I must make my declaration of interests known as a former professional and scholar of these social relations, and except for better knowledge and understanding in my opinion the economy does not need to be reopened, it needs to be strategically reconstructed. The discussion of when to reopen the economy, forgive me for the direct language, and as someone has said, “prima facie stupid”. The notion that the economy can be reopened with things quickly returning to normal, whatever it may be, reflects a brand exclusively of “a type of magical thinking”, of all those who by “neoliberal” principles defend the financial system from all costs to the detriment of people. What countries need is to rebuild the economic system, not only to recover from the damage caused by the “pandemic”, but also and essentially to find solutions to the longstanding structural problems in the economy, and not to reopen the economy. As the German philosopher Immanuel Kant said, “any interior reform and any change for the better depends exclusively on the application of our own effort”
We have no doubts that we live in times of great uncertainty and this is very prolonged, uncertainty that arises from the “coronavirus virus” and in its multiple faces and in the forecast of the possibility of new vacancies until a vaccine appears. To date, the only refuge for this uncertainty is scientists and their scientific investigations into this virus, and we hope that they will have a quick response. We must be fully aware that the scientific method requires rigor, confrontation of hypotheses, cross-validation of research, humility at work and ambition in responses. Our expectations are that this research will mark the history of science, make it more open, with faster dissemination of information and greater cooperation and mutual assistance from scientists worldwide, in this world in which we live with the notorious excess of information and but a lot of thinking deficit.
As has always been our position, we refuse to admit the qualification that “we are a country that has no resources”. We have resources, both human and material, and we have to be able to design public policies capable of producing them, creating value, generating wealth and jobs and building a different future. In this sense, the country has to design and put into operation projects anchor capable of preventing collapse and transforming the economy. All of this does not justify, I have already heard some “buzz” from behind that we need large projects for the forest and the interior, they are almost exclusively based on the construction of biomass plants, with the justification and justification for valuing the forest waste, promoting forest cleaning, producing bioenergy, creating jobs and increasing territorial cohesion. It is a strategy with completely opposite effects as we can see in the documentary produced by Michael Moore “Planet of the Humans” in May 2020. There is a reason, among others, for this: we place too much emphasis on our societies on the economy and finances, which are undoubtedly very important. But we must give due attention to Social Sciences such as Sociology, Biology, Epidemiology and Health Sciences and many more. They are vital for thinking about the complexity of the world and being able to identify and anticipate risks. Bombarded continuously by massive information, we have to be able to think and discern the structural trends that mark change. American philosopher Nelson Goodman called attention to "possible worlds that are within the real world". In these crisis situations, more important than predicting the future, that nobody knows what will be, is to look at these possible worlds that are within the dark reality that we live in and find ways to minimize the risks that are placed on us. This is no joke. ” Every day, it seems, brings another indicator of our decline: the nation that can do it has become a land that cannot cope with a pandemic…. How can everything go wrong, so fast? Well, we know the answer. Like Joe Biden

SERÁ PRECISO RECONSTRUIR OU REABRIR A ECONOMIA?(2ªparte)

SERÁ PRECISO RECONSTRUIR OU REABRIR A ECONOMIA?(2ªparte)

“A comunidade internacional deve redesenhar e reequilibrar as suas economias e sociedades depois da pandemia da Covid-19, que “expôs a fragilidade global” em temas que vão bem mais além da saúde.” (Engº António Guterres – Secretário Geral das Organização das Nações Unidas)

A este propósito não conhecemos qualquer ESTUDO DE IMPACTO SOCIAL das múltiplas medidas de “subsidiação”, aprovadas pelo governo, tanto para as pessoas como para as empresas….somos “lestos” a realçar os impactos económicos , os impactos financeiros e até, por estar na moda, os impactos ambientais, mas as previsões dos impactos sociais que tais medidas de politica acarretam isso não existe! Cabe realçar que as nossas referências não envolvem apenas e só os interventores políticos, que de uma maneira geral “sofrem” dum elevado “deficit” de preparação técnica, mas causa-nos alguma estranheza, o não envolvimento nestas matérias dos múltiplos técnicos das várias áreas sociais que, talvez denotem alguma impreparação em transformar as suas ideias e projectos estratégicos que teórica e regularmente difundem, mas que não resistiriam ao enquadramento social que pretendem envolver e, talvez por isso, evitem debruçar-se sobre tais impactos sociais que deviam prevalecer sobre todos os outros. (económicos, financeiros e ambientais).

Se consideramos que os recursos financeiros são escassos, tal como os recursos ambientais, talvez seja o momento de compatibilizarmos tais recursos com a valorização do conhecimento humano e priorizar e enquadrar a avaliação das medidas de política com prevalência de potenciar não só o valor do conhecimento, mas também

a revalorização do conhecimento profissional da força de trabalho humano qualificada como “indiferenciados”.

Não temos duvidas que num estado social a dimensão da vulnerabilidade social é uma das componentes da sociedade que terá de ser subsidiada pelos recursos económicos públicos, mas deveria ser sempre compatibilizada com a avaliação do retorno social dessas medidas de politica – isto é a subsidiação deverá ter sempre como  retorno a prestação de serviço social e/ou a necessária revalorização de conhecimentos profissionais.

Na realidade em Portugal e em alguns outros países com alguma  dimensão nas politicas sociais, somos continuamente massacrados com  uma informação massiva, com muita ênfase na economia e nas finanças, e por vezes  a nível  ambiental, que são sem dúvida muito importantes. Temos, no entanto que ser capazes de pensar e discernir as tendências estruturais que marcam a mudança e, talvez por isso tenhamos que dar mais tempo e a devida atenção, nomeadamente às áreas das ciências sociais, da biologia, epidemiologia e da saúde que são vitais para pensarmos a complexidade do mundo e sermos capazes de identificar e antecipar os riscos.  "Por mais trágicas que as últimas semanas tenham sido, por mais difíceis, assustadoras e incertas, este momento representa uma oportunidade incrível para as pessoas despertarem e para trabalharmos juntos para a mudança”.( Barack Obama, ex-presidente dos EUA)