Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Mohammed Arkoun: Yes, that is indeed a question difficult to answer because the world now faces a historic conjuncture where a generalized crisis of the mind itself is being noted. A strong mind, an aware mind, a mind opened to a humanist vision of the organization of the society is needed to sum up a long history of capitalism and to look at capitalism as a contribution to civilizations, societies, but also as a system that has been marked by considerable failures from the point of view of human rights, of the fundamental respect of other people as being equal people. And yet capitalism didn't do that. Therefore a critical balance of capitalism must be made by all citizens of the world, first because those who have been injured by the wild development of capitalism since the eighteenth, nineteenth, twentieth century didn't yet speak, and it is necessary for them to speak with their freedom, with their history, with their memories that are wounded memories, that are suffering memories and it is necessary to involve these wounded and suffering memories in a speech process at the world level where those who still practise capitalism, it should be said, in a cynical manner and often as wild as at the time of colonization, so that they finally hear this speech and that a reflection on a possible after capitalism can be undertaken.

by Mohammed Arkoun

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Mohau Pheko: I actually think that after capitalism is life. I think that many people have been questioning the notion of capitalism for a long time in the sense that capitalism has failed. When we look at the inequality today, it is quite clear that it has been a system of exploitation, it has been a system of monopoly, it has been a system of political disintegration, it has been a system of -- that has created tremendous conflict in the world today. So I think that after capitalism, we actually have the opportunity for new economic imaginaries, for new political imaginaries in the world today that can help us create society that are based on distribution, societies that are based on solidarity, societies that are based on cooperation, societies that begin to look at us as people who live in community, societies that do not exploit other people's knowledge and intellectual capacity and intellectual gifts for the monopoly of profit. And I think that it is a tremendous opening and a tremendous opportunity for us to re-imagine ourselves differently from people and individuals who live on a dog-eat-dog existence, and begin a system where solidarity becomes power and communalism becomes something that embraces and enhances our communities and ourselves as a nation and as a people. And I think this is our only survival. I think after capitalism, we survive and we live.

by Mohau Pheko

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Monira Rahman: Obviously, it's socialism and the equal rights of the people of should be established, has to be established and the social development, solidarity; the social capitalism, the human capitalism and socialism. In that way -- where people have the power and where people can exercise the choices and where society provides equal opportunity to the people everywhere in this world for development and development for the people.

by Monira Rahman

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Nadja Halilbegovich: Well, I think that capitalism currently perpetuates this horrific gap between rich and the poor and I think that we need to work on making capitalism more humane and more altruistic. And by that I mean a system where the poor countries are not remaining poor and being crippled by their debt and people not included in trade and in production and in development. So I think I found three ways that we can help make the capitalism fair and more humane; one is use of microlending, I was talking about that earlier. I think it reaches people who truly need, you know, just that much that little trust and that little money that they can actually rise above their poverty. And I think it doesn’t empower them only financially, it empowers them just as human beings and you know, through research -- researching the effects of microlending they’ve come up with amazing stories of women who receive these microloans who are empowered as human beings and as heads of their families and their whole family, their children go and are educated, their health is improved. So microlending is one way. Another is fair trade, use of fair trade which means that, you know, people would actually -- get fairly paid for their hard labor and they’d live and work in conditions that are really humane and deserving, and third debt cancellation to poorest of the nation so that again the funds that they are paying back to the developed nations go to develop them to make AIDS pandemic finally something that we can grapple with, eradicate hunger and just again have them grow.

by Nadja Halilbegovich

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Neela Marikkar: What’s after capitalism? I think it’s nationalism. I think, we are saying -- it is almost like it’s doing a whole circle. You are seeing an increased sense of patriotism, national agendas within countries. People are moving towards internalizing, holding on to their cultural values, being more nation-minded about buying products that are manufactured in their own countries. You are beginning to see people feeling it’s almost like -- it’s gone the circle of rejecting the global, how would you say it, the globalization. I think people are rejecting it, because there is a sort of a feeling of wanting to go back and internalize and feel strong about your nationalistic feelings. So, in a way it’s almost gone back in -- people are looking much more internally, they are more under threat, they are holding on to what they believe is intrinsically theirs culturally, their values. You are beginning to see this, it’s not a very positive thing in my opinion. I think that it creates all sorts of new problems, people begin to feel -- be more narrow in their thinking, and constantly feel insecure, I wouldn’t say insecure, but I think what happens here is that nationalism seems to be what is emerging as a trend in many of this -- many of the countries that have been capitalistic. I think you see this in America, you see this in my country, Sri Lanka, you see it in many parts of Europe as well.

by Neela Marikkar

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Oliviero Toscani: Well, there was communism – no, there was [Catholicism] and there was – and there are still [Catholicism]. There was – there is still communism and there is post-communism. There is capitalism and there will be post-capitalism. There will be, of course, an evolution, slow evolution of the human mind, of the human system that will take us slowly, slowly, very slowly with an incredible effort and with an incredible waste of energy and lives and human resources into a more – into an evolution where I hope, because I told you I am basically an optimistic man, then one day slowly we will be – we’ll evolute into a civilized breed. We are probably the least civilized part of the creation. Animal, plants, flora, fauna is all perfect. We human, we are not perfect. We are not finished yet. So we have to go through the – our development and we have to go through capitalism and I don’t know what will happen. I just hope that we will be better.

by Oliviero Toscani

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Oscar Olivera: What has to come some day after this dictatorship of the supranational capitals, of the imperial power of the United States, England and other governments, will be inevitable for the world. It will be a society, based on the four following fundamental pillars: mutuality, respect, solidarity and transparency, in a world where all of us will be equal. I believe that after capitalism there has to come the appropriation to our dreams, of what we have been dreaming for generations [in connection with its appearance these years]. And I think that what will come after this dictatorship of supranational capital, is to develop and to clearly define those dreams which we, the peoples, have had for many generations.

by Oscar Olivera

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Paul Knight: What is after capitalism? This is something that I too would like to know. Personally, I think we may go to a hybrid type system where we see a lot of the socialist ideals moving into balance out our economic processes and views and excesses that we currently see under the capitalist model. And partly this will come down to a slowing of growth in economies, the slowing of growth in markets. The issue that we face, I think, for this is we have countries like China and India which have the potential for huge population growth, huge opportunities for market development. So I don’t see change from the capitalist marketing processes and globalization occurring until actually these markets also slow their growth. So we’re many years away from changing capitalism I think. Although one thing that could change on this level would be the impact we’re having on the environment and I think this could lead to change so that we really do need to look beyond just the capitalist financial benefit of individuals and shareholders within companies to a system where we say okay, no, we need to be supporting beyond these systems. We need to ensure that these people outside of our sphere are supported. And by doing that I thank we’ll start to see that move back to more of a socialist type view within our current capitalist economic--

by Paul Knight

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Pauline Tangiora: A new world order must come up, and hopefully with this new world order there will be a fairness and a justice in people living together. This is a concern for all peoples of the world to be able to live in peace and harmony, of a just way of serving each other both in the market place and within the home, because capitalism is also destroying the family life and homes, because children look to having things which comes through capitalism. Maybe we will come back to the necessities of life and the basics of sharing and caring for each other. It is an important concept that we look towards living simply, so that simply others may live. And the downfall of capitalism is this. Then we will have achieved something.

by Pauline Tangiora

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Pico Iyer: After capitalism comes a more rigorous and more thoughtful, a more searching sense of what riches really mean. I think men are always going to have the impulse to acquire, to get on better in the world, perhaps to make money, much though many of us deplore it. It seems to be as fundamental a longing as hunger and thirst. And I don't think we can legislate or hope that men at any point are not going to want to enrich themselves, perhaps to form communities and in the formation of those communities, to form divisions. That's a part of human nature. As Churchill said of democracy, I think, it's a bad system or it’s an imperfect system, but it’s the best imperfect system we have. And some people may say the same of capitalism, but many of the alternatives are ideal, but idealism has cost a lot of lives. So I am suspecting that we will muddle through with capitalism and try to refine and reform capitalism from within rather than reaching towards an imported system, such as communism, which has the beauty and freshness of representing another way and yet sometimes hasn’t factored in enough the needs of human nature. A theory that works so stirringly, in theory and on the page and in the abstract, but regards humans as digits rather than breathing people with longings and cravings that, sad to say, are part of the human bargain.

by Pico Iyer

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Rachid ElDaif: I think that no one can tell, that no one can foresee that. It isn't easy to see how things will develop because I personally think that you can't compare history with a line. That means that one point follows the other and that we can't foresee what will happen the next day. I think that is nothing but an illusion to believe that we can predict the things that will happen tomorrow. It's always unpredictable. History is always unpredictable. The development of things is always unpredictable. So I think that we will be surprised. For example, who could imagine a century ago that the 21st century would be like this, like it is today? Absolutely nobody. That is why I like the idea very much that we are agents of history. History acts through us and we are nothing but poor agents of history.

by Rachid ElDaif

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Raymond Federman: Curious question. What is after capitalism? I don’t think there is anything that can follow capitalism, that the whole world is launched on this capitalistic event. Even in the communist countries, capitalism is in power because capitalism is a strange kind of abstract notion. It belongs to a corporation but it pretends to belong to the people, and capitalism, even if it destroyed itself, is like a snake eating its own tail, it revives itself. There is a kind of circularity of production and a production that leads to more wealth and more wealth, and it’s an illusion in many cases because only the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer. Socialism, communism tried another form. As we know, it failed. It failed for whatever reason because again, corruption. In capitalism, the corruption is inherent to the very system that it is. And there is no doubt that every country in the world, whether it lacks it or not, eventually, ends up being a capitalistic country. That does not mean that the politics can be capitalistic, but the economy is capitalistic. We can go back in history to see that this was always present, except that in our time, because of the technology that we have, because of the trade exchange, because of the production thing, capitalism is the end. Nothing will follow this, only economical disaster. A disaster that could happen if, one since we know for sure that the old problem of oil in the world, that the control that certain nations have over oil could create an enormous economical crisis in the world then, capitalism could collapse as a data in America in 1929, but from it, it revived itself. It is like a snake that eats, swallows its own tail.

by Raymond Federman

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Robbie Conal: After capitalism is death of capitalists I hope. There has to be a better way, a more equitable way to produce and distribute goods and services that human beings desire and need to maintain life and to grow than purchasing them from people whose main idea in making them is to make money off of their production and sale. What kind of motive is that for producing anything? What kind of heart goes into that product? Maybe if we have something other than our private profit motive driving our production, we will make more useful products and products that are more affordable for other people to receive and then use to better their lives. [Quite] honestly thinking about that, but it’s going to reach a point where capitalism is so poisonous because the basis of it is that profit motive that is no longer going to be viable as a delivery system or a production system for the people of the world. And either we are going to expire or we are going to come up with another way.

by Robbie Conal

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Rodrigo Baggio: What will come after capitalims? This is an important question, a question of the strategical development of our planet. And as we were talking about before, we are going with high speed [] into a destruction of our planet. What comes after has to be a system that eliminates this failing which has the capitalism, which means that the capitalism values those persons who have the power of competition, which [] products and enterprises because they are competetive and so they get their position and are being appreciated for the power, for the increase of their [] power, their capacity of increasing. It is very important that people can change this picture and have like the philosophy of natural capitalism or neosocialism, a more balanced form in which we can balance this hectic in pro of consume and wealth in order to get to higher values. And I see that this should be the future which comes after the capitalism. A form of social, environmental, spiritual and economical organization which is more sustainable, more equilibrated so that we can live in a better world, contribute to the construction of a society with more equality, more freedom and more solidarity.

by Rodrigo Baggio

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Roland Berger: I think the simplest answer is that it is highly probable that capitalism will succeed capitalism. But the question is: Which form of capitalism? Churchill made this wonderful remark about democracy being the worst form of government that he knows but knowing no better one, he would always promote democracy. We experienced that until 1990, countries which had been excluded from the capitalist system of the free market economy, all the countries that were under communist rule and because of this, have suffered not only from considerable losses as far as prosperity is concerned, but also from considerable losses as far as the quality of life is concerned, and the personal and political liberty. Capitalism, a free market economy, brought in its wake all this, also political and personal liberty. On the one hand, the free market economy also leads to an unequal distribution of wealth and income, and we developed a system here in Germany, after 1945, after World War II, a social model of the so-called social market economy. This model combines, also functioning in practice, the dynamics of free competition and free markets with the social model of mutual assistance. This means people who are in need without their own fault, who live on the shady side of our material system without their own fault, will be enabled by the state, via measures of redistribution, via taxes, via systems of social security, to keep up their standard of life.

by Roland Berger

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Sanar Yurdatapan: What is after capitalism? Colonialism, neocolonialism as we said infernal apocalypse. No, I am not that pessimist. People, just as they learned how to share the roads by traffic signs and traffic lights, they will also learn how to share the wealth of this world. In the future, I hope that will not be as bad as we are afraid today.

by Sanar Yurdatapan

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Santiago Roncagliolo: I think that democracy will come after capitalism. The societies in which the people enjoy the highest living standard, the most freedom, and access to state services such as education or justice are capitalistic societies; what happens is that these are societies in which the state offers a series of grants – some more than others – to its citizens that private interests will not prevail over public interests, over the interests of those societies. They are societies in which a big middle class will form, not societies of savage capitalism, and I think this is a development that never stops: it is always possible to be more democratic, it is always possible to give more development possibilities to the people, it is always possible to give the people more representation and more participation in the decisions that affect them. Furthermore, I think that this is the only thing that can help to contain the debauchery and inequality an exclusively capitalistic market produces. I think it is necessary for economic developments to parallel political developments, developments allowing the people to be the masters of of their destinies.

by Santiago Roncagliolo

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Shaobin Yang:

by Shaobin Yang

Sep 9, 2006 10:55:00 AM cite

Sihem Bensedrine: This could possibly be paradise but if you examine the actual thinking, the actual tendances and the fact that the leaders of our world are not showing any will to proceed in this way I can hardly imagine how capitalism could disappear. So I have no idea how to proceed in this way but I try my best as I try to wipe of this mortgage of our fortune, to erasure these restraints which avoid a normal development of humanity. I hope there are others, I hope there will be enough maturity, enough wisdom in the world to abandon these systems one day, which are making out of human a kind of predator.

by Sihem Bensedrine