Coronavirus, Yunus: “Let’s not go back to the world before”

It goes without saying that, before the coronavirus, the world was not doing well. Until all the headlines were fully devoted to the coronavirus, people everywhere were screaming out loud announcing the terrible calamities that were to come. We literally count the days until the entire planet would become uninhabitable due to the climate catastrophe. We talked about the seriousness of the threat of mass unemployment caused by artificial intelligence and how the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few was reaching an explosive level. We constantly remind ourselves that this decade is the last we have available. In the end, in fact, all our efforts will lead to only partial results, inadequate to save our planet.

Should we go back to that world? We have the choice.

Suddenly, the coronavirus radically changed the context of things and the data of small changes. It has opened imprudent possibilities before our eyes that have never been considered before. Suddenly, here we are in front of a blank blackboard. We can go in any direction we want. What incredible freedom of choice!

Before we can get it going again, we must decide what kind of economy we want. First of all, the economy is a tool that can help us achieve our goals. It should not make us feel tormented and helpless. It should not act as a lethal trap set by some divine power to inflict punishment on us. We must never forget, even for a moment, that the economy is an instrument created by us men. Therefore, we must continue to design and reconfigure until it makes everyone happy. It is a tool developed to achieve the greatest possible collective happiness.

If, at some point, we have the feeling that it is not taking us where we want to go, we immediately know that there is something wrong with its hardware or software that we use. All we have to do is fix it. We cannot exempt ourselves by simply saying “I’m sorry, we cannot achieve our goals because our software and hardware do not allow us to.” It would be a pathetic and unacceptable excuse. If we want to create a world of zero carbon dioxide emissions, we will create the right software and hardware to do so. If we want a world in which unemployment does not exist, we will do the same. If we want a world in which there is no concentration of wealth, we will do the same. It’s about developing the right hardware and software. We have the capabilities. We can do it. When humans decide to do something, they just do it. Nothing is impossible for men.

The most exciting news related to the coronavirus crisis is that it offers us invaluable opportunities for a new beginning. We can start by designing the hardware and software on a virtually blank screen.

Post-coronavirus recovery should be a recovery driven by social awareness.
Helping us substantially is a unanimous global decision: let’s be clear, we don’t want to go back to the world we were in before. In the name of the shot, we don’t want to jump into the same hot pan as before.

Governments must assure citizens that this recovery program will be completely different from those of the past. The next recovery will not be implemented to return things to where they were before. This will be the recovery of people and the planet. Companies capable of making this possible must be created. The crucial point for launching a post-coronavirus relaunch program will be to place a new social and environmental awareness at the center of every decision and all political decision-making processes. Governments will have to ensure that no dollar ends up in someone’s pocket unless there is a guarantee that, compared to any other option, that dollar given to that person will bring the maximum possible social and environmental benefit to society in their set. Everything that is done in the recovery must lead to the creation of a conscious economy for each country and for the whole world on a social, economic and environmental level.

The moment has come
We will start as recommended by past therapies with rescues, rescue packages in extremis, but this time we will use them for projects and interventions stimulated by social conscience. We must develop them now, in the midst of a crisis, because when this is over there will be a tumult of old ideas and old examples destined to direct interventions in a certain direction. Others will enthusiastically argue to derail new initiatives and say that these are never proven policies. (When we set out to define the Olympics for social business, the opponents were saying exactly those words. Now, the 2024 Paris Olympics are understood in this regard, and enthusiasm is growing.) We must prepare before the second round begins. general. The moment has come. That moment is now.

Social enterprise
In this article, I illustrate a series of policies that I know well and trust. This does not exclude that there are many other creative and effective options. Therefore, I also encourage others to present their recommendations, always bearing in mind that they will have to meet the requirements of a recovery program driven by social and environmental awareness. We can all work together to take advantage of the opportunity presented to us.

In the NRP (New recovery program, Program of the new recovery) that I propose, I assign a fundamental role to a new form of company called social company. It is a company created exclusively to solve people’s problems, a company that does not generate personal profit for investors, except for the recovery of the initial investment only. Once they have returned to the original investment, all subsequent earnings must re-enter the company.

Governments will have many opportunities to encourage, prioritize and make room for social enterprises to engage in growing and far-reaching responsibilities for recovery. At the same time, governments will have to carry out programs to which they must commit in any case, for example, assistance to the poor and unemployed through traditional welfare programs, restoration of health care programs and with all they. the necessary services, supporting all companies in all sectors where options for social businesses have not yet progressed.

On the social enterprise front, governments can create corporate social capital funds, funds at the central and local levels; they can stimulate the private sector, foundations, financial institutions and investment funds to do the same; they can encourage traditional companies to become social companies or make agreements with partners, companies and partners that operate at this level, so that all companies are encouraged to have a division that deals with social companies or create social companies that operate in joint venture with other companies of this type.

According to the NRP, governments will be able to finance social enterprises to acquire other companies and ally with those that need to turn them into social enterprises. The central bank may give priority to the latter in the allocation of loans by financial institutions, to invest in the stock market or to introduce those of strong social enterprises. Enormous opportunities arise everywhere: governments must involve as many actors as possible in social enterprises.

Who invests in social enterprises?
Who are the investors in social companies? Where can they be found? They are everywhere. We do not see them because the outstanding economy textbooks do not recognize their existence. As a result, our eyes are not used to identifying them. Only recently have economics courses been planned to tackle some issues in this regard, such as social business, social entrepreneurship, social impact investing, non-profit organizations and also some topics inspired by the worldwide popularity of Grameen Bank and of microcredit

As long as economics remains a science of maximizing profits, we cannot rely on it to develop a relaunch and recovery program based on social and environmental awareness. But we will not be able to turn on the switch and turn off the traditional economy overnight. As their activities continue, governments will have to create more and more space for social enterprises to trust their reliability and efficiency. The success of social enterprises will become tangible when we see that those who maximize profits for their own benefit will not only coexist with entrepreneurs interested in having zero personal profits, and friendships and forms of collaboration will be born, but also when more and more entrepreneurs and Investors Interested in Income Staff will create social ventures on their own or by linking in association with other social activities. That will be the beginning of an economy driven by social and environmental awareness.

As soon as government policy begins to recognize entrepreneurs and investors in social enterprise, they will be excited to take on the important social role that will be necessary at that time. Entrepreneurs in social enterprises do not belong to a small “good people” economy. Here we are talking about a significantly large global ecosystem, which includes large multinationals, large social business funds, many talented managers, as well as institutions, foundations, trusts with many years of experience behind them in the areas of finance and administration. from global and local social enterprises.

Finally, when the basic concept and experience of social business start to catch the eye of governments, many unshakable entrepreneurs interested in personal gain will be happy to showcase the most unknown part of their talent by becoming entrepreneurs themselves. . successful social networks, and will play invaluable roles in times of social and economic crisis, such as the crisis of climate change, the crisis of unemployment, the crisis of concentration of wealth, etc.

Human beings are natural entrepreneurs, not job seekers.
The PNR must break the traditional division of labor between citizens and government. Citizens are supposed to be responsible for taking care of their families and paying taxes, and it is the responsibility of the government (and, to some extent, the non-profit sector) to take care of all the community’s problems, such as the weather. , the world of work, health care, education, water, etc. The NRP must abandon this dividing wall and encourage all citizens to step forward, to demonstrate their talents in problem solving through the creation of social enterprises. Their strength lies not in the scope of their initiatives, but in their number. A small initiative multiplied by a large number becomes a significant national action. One of the problems that entrepreneurs of social enterprises will be able to face and solve immediately will be unemployment caused by the collapse of the economy. Those who want to invest in social enterprises will be able to create them to create cascading jobs for the unemployed. You can also choose to turn the unemployed into entrepreneurs, and thus demonstrate that human beings are natural entrepreneurs, not job seekers. Social enterprises will be able to work together with the government system to create a robust healthcare system. Those who invest in a social business do not necessarily have to be individuals. It can be an institution, for example, or an investment fund, a foundation, a trust, a management company or administration of social companies. Many of these institutions know very well how to work amicably with traditional business owners. A fruitful government-launched call for despair and the post-coronavirus emergency situation may set in motion a hitherto unknown wave of activities. It will be a decisive test of leadership to demonstrate how the world can come back to life in a whole new and unprecedented way, starting with the young, the middle-aged, and the elderly, men and women.

There will be no place to hide
If we do not participate in a post-coronavirus economic recovery program driven by social and environmental awareness, we will inevitably take a much worse path than the coronavirus catastrophe. To defend ourselves against the coronavirus, we can shut ourselves up in our homes, but if we do not give adequate answers to global problems that are constantly getting worse, we will have no place to hide from angry Mother Nature with ourselves and with the masses of angry people all over the planet.

Translation by Anna Bissanti

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