As severe poverty is the result of human agency we can choose either of these futures.
Efforts to address poverty, tuberculosis and many other pressing global problems have failed as they have been dominated by a 'development' agenda rooted in market-oriented policies that both reflect and reinforce the dominant neo-liberal discourse.
Critical reflection is required on how current economic policies can be changed. The use of new metaphors to re-shape thinking and action should include a shift from the idea of sustainable development to the more credible notion of developing sustainability.
Pursuit of change in the national and global distribution of resources will be essential and this will require acknowledging and addressing upstream societal and economic forces that drive the global political economy and aggravate poverty. The paper makes recommendations for a series of complex, interdigitating actions needed to reshape macro-economic forces over the short and longer terms.
The long recognized failures of socialism, now accompanied by recognition of radical failures in a distorted form of capitalism make it necessary to seek system change towards 'economic democracy' that could allow human ingenuity to generate and utilise resources to improve the human condition.
This is an abstract of a paper prepared for Towards Carnegie III, a major conference aimed at devising strategies to overcome poverty and inequality. Solomon Benatar and Ross Upshur are from the University of Cape Town
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