A new vision of the future of the European Union

The concept:

Every society in the world is based on three fundamental pillars: people, ecology and economy. Today we live in a society where all three have reached a point of mutual contradiction.

The European Union is one of the most complex political and socio-economic systems, has become extremely fragile and is under a risk of collapse. To prevent it, the EU needs to drastically reduce tension between people, nature and economics. It must give up its single-standard approach to economics and allow alternative socio-economic systems to co-exist under one European roof.

In other words, to build a stable and anti-fragile society, the EU must diversify and create three different socio-economic platforms within one system. Each platform will specialize on one particular priority of the three: economy, people and ecology. For example, ‘Capitalistan’, ‘Socialistan’ and ‘Tribalistan’.

‘Capitalistan’ is a platform of a free-market economy with a focus on economic growth, aka ‘fast growth’ economy.

‘Socialistan’ is a platform of a planned economy with a focus on maximum social equality, aka ‘slow growth’ economy.

‘Tribalistan’ is a platform that focuses entirely on ecological conservation and sustainable lifestyle, aka ‘zero growth’ economy.

All three socio-economic platforms have to function simultaneously and independently from each under. All of them will be supervised by the EU parliament aided by AI regulatory protocol of no interference.

Citizens of the EU will have a right to choose a platform that suits them best, as well as a right to change one platform for another. To join a platform requires signing a Social Contract of the platform (for a certain period of time) and abide by its rules for the duration of the contract. Members of each platform will pay their taxes (membership fees) to their platforms in exchange for the platform’s benefits.

General benefits of the tripolar socio-economic system of the EU:

1. It solves the current democratic problem, aka ‘majority vs minority’, thus drastically reducing social tensions in the EU.

2. Creating ‘slow’ and ‘zero’ economic systems reduces pressure on natural resources and ecology.

3. In the event of an economic crisis of Capitalistan the other 2 platforms will remain intact, thus preventing a collapse of the whole system.

4. Simultaneous development of each platform will provide a heuristic experience and expertise useful for the future development of the EU.

Besides that, the three-fold societal model will help to solve specific issues the EU will face in the near future, such as:

1. Impact of new tech, robotisation and jobs market. This issue will be the focus and a testing ground of Capitalistan.

2. Climate change and ecology. This issue will be dealt with in all three platforms, each working on alternative and unique solutions.

3. Ageing population. This issue will be the focus of all three platforms, especially Socialistan.

4. Migrants policy. This is the issue for Capitalistan and Socialistan only. Both systems will draft temporary Migrant Social Contracts which migrants will have to sign before entering the EU. A breach of the contract will give a legal way to deny the EU residency. A non-breach of the contract will grant full EU citizenship.

5. Security and military institutions. This issue to be dealt with by all platforms, each making own proposals. The overall decision on security policy will be based on democratic votes of all citizens of the EU.

6. Rise of nationalism and populism. In a threefold societal model of the EU, there won’t be this issue anymore.

Practical steps:

1. To create Eutopia web portal showcasing the three Social Contracts that explain the goals, benefits and social obligations of each platform.

2. To ask people to vote for Social Contract of their choice. This will allow creating initial statistical data of social preferences.

3. To develop a working virtual simulation of the tripolar society model powered by AI regulatory protocol. The protocol’s objective will be to protect the interests of each platform and to ensure the principle of non-interference between them.

Q&As:

A relationship between people and ecology is determined by an economic system (game rules) adopted by any given society. Changing economic principles changes psychological relationship between people themselves and people and nature.

For example, Capitalistan is a game with the mantra ‘profit above all’. The game encourages extreme individualism, consumerism, greed and social inequality (rich vs poor). Social status is determined primerily by wealth which is a key to power. Money rule politics. To protect itself Capitalistan criticises alternative game rules.

Socialistan, on the other hand, is a different game. Its policies are based on a different set of values and rules. Social status is no longer determined by wealth alone, but by sharing the wealth with the rest of the society. This is a system of moderate consumption, competition and economic growth. It can be compared to the former Soviet Union, but a lot smarter, with open borders and on a purely voluntary basis.

Tribalistan is again a different game. It caters for ‘players’ with a different set of values altogether. They reject Capitalistan with it’s cutting throat competition and dystopian cyber future. They don’t like Socialistan with its overwhelming control and desire to live in a less technological environment, freely, with less stuff and close to nature. For them, like for archaic tribes of Borneo or hippies from the 60s, ‘play’ is more important than ‘work’. They are willing to trade all the stress of modern society for stress-free life in a commune.

In other words, think of Capitalistan, Socialistan and Tribalistan as specialised shops. Customers can come and go, and the future will show what shop will be the most popular.

So, to summarize the answer to your original question, a specialized shop can deliver more values to its customers as opposed to a general store that must always to compromise. Thus, proper stewardship of the earth and empathy for people can’t be done effectively within one system with conflicting interests.

And to finalize my answer, I would like to return to the game metaphor. Some players like strategy games, some RPG and others like puzzles. Now imagine creating a game that would satisfy them all. I think it would be a crappy game. That’s why we need to specialise, aka 3 different game categories in a game store called Eutopia.

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