The Four Phases of Society (1998)
Where Are We Going In The 21st Century?
PUBLISHED IN 1998 BY PRAEGER PUBLISHERS – ISBN: 0-275-96143-5
Printed in the United States of America
Dr Peter PEETERS shows us that other options do exist to the materialistic-consumer society in which we are immersed.
He opens the path, giving us a clear, unbiased view of how societies have passed through several phases and will ultimately move towards the Fourth Phase.
Changes have always come through understanding, which leads to new decisions shaping our lives as we wish them to evolve
The Global Economy and its Long-Term Future (2008)
In my book The Global Economy and its Long-Term Future: I present a graphic method that allows the prediction of major crises in the global economy.
The Financial Crisis and Our Economic Future
Extracts from the article written by Dr Peter PEETERS – 2008
It is the deviation over long periods of time of income inequality from the harmonious level that causes economic periods to end in major crises.
Conditions are not crucial yet, but if unregulated capitalist practices cannot be held in check and global income inequality cannot be prevented from rising well above the harmonious level, the world will, in another 20 years or so, be in for a crisis that will truly deserve the name of Mega Depression.
While the economics of the most advanced nations are moving towards stagnation, economic growth will continue in the rest of the world. In an infinite world this would be able to go until every country reached the high levels of economic productivity of today’s richest nations. But the Earth is not infinite. If the whole world were to live as Americans do now, the combined effect of all human activities would surpass planetary limits.
Today, many still refuse to contemplate that our planet is not growing in tune with the human population and its economic activities but remains what it has always been: a finite entity. By 2030-50, however, global devastation will be so alarming that it will be clear to most that ever-growing production and consumption are not sustainable.
The decades after 2030 can therefore be expected to be a period of chaos, which will last until the world manages to switch to a brand-new economic system that can operate within the future constraints of zero economic growth and planetary limitations. Devising such a system from scratch will require a lot of lateral thinking and will take time, and we would avert many years of trial and error, confusion and continued destruction of the environment if we had an alternative system ready by 2030-40.
For this to happen it is imperative that we radically turn our backs on the get-rich-quick attitudes of the recent past and begin to experiment with new types of society and economic behaviour. To have a viable post-materialist type of society ready within 20-30 years, we have to begin now to search for ways to improve the quality of our lives within the limits imposed by zero growth, while consuming no more than what the Earth can sustain in order to keep our activities within the limits set by our planet.
About the Author
Dr Peter Peeters is a physicist by training. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and afterwards continued his research in Elementary Particle Physics in Brussels; at CERN, Geneva, and at the Argonne National Laboratory, USA. During these years, he published numerous articles in specialised scientific journals. He was adjunct professor of physics at the University of Brussels from 1974-1989. Over the years, his interest shifted to studying global problems and a first book on this was published in 1979.
He took a sabbatical year in 1981-82 and travelled around Africa in an old Land Rover with his wife in order to experience Third World problems first hand.
In 1989, he left the University of Brussels and has devoted a large part of his time since trying to gain a deeper insight into different aspects of the world’s future. This research resulted in: The Four Phases of Society published in 1998, and in The Global Economy and its Long-Term Future, which he finished in 2006. While waiting for this book to be published Dr. Peeters has begun to write novels to take his mind off serious matters.