Our most important task is to get off our collision course. And who is there to tackle such a task? I think every one of us, whether old or young, powerful or powerless, rich or poor, influential or uninfluential. To talk about the future is useful only if it leads to action now. And what can we do now, while we are still in a position of “never having had it so good”? To say the least—which already is very much—we must thoroughly understand the problem and begin to see the possibility of evolving a new life-style, with new methods of production and new patterns of consumption, a life-style designed for permanence. To give only three preliminary examples: (1) In agriculture and horticulture we can interest ourselves in the perfection of production methods which are biologically sound, build up soil fertility, and produce health, beauty, and permanence. Productivity will then look after itself. (2) In industry we can interest ourselves in the evolution of small-scale technology, relatively nonviolent technology, “technology with a human face”, so that people have a chance to enjoy themselves while they are working. (3) In industry again—and surely industry is the pace-setter of modern life—we can interest ourselves in forms of partnership between management and employees, and even in forms of common ownership.
Small Is Beautiful: A Study of Economics as if People Mattered, Ernst Friedrich Schumacher, Harper & Row, 01973, p. 20.
