School - I026: IV - Write a review to a CHALLENGES OF THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY by Pekka Himanen

In this session we were asked to write an review to 2004 document which was ordered by Committee for the Future, PARLIAMENT OF FINLAND. Document was written by Pekka Himanen.

Review to CHALLENGES OF THE GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY by Pekka Himanen

The document was targeting to see future problems of IT society and how to adopt and prevent the damage for the people of Finland and it was designed in a manner that the analysis can be adopted to rest of the World or at least to the Europe.

It is divided  into 4 major chapters:

• A creative economy
• A creative welfare society
• Humanly meaningful development
• A global culture

Also it includes background where the analysis comes from.

Information Society

Page 10 in PDF (-1- in the document header) "This review comes to the conclusion that the most critical aspect in the development of the information society is the development of the deep-set structures of society, to which we must now pay close attention"

The author gives overview that the society is becoming more creative and we need to have a plan how to mitigate the risks when the society becomes creative welfare society.

On the next page there are global trends which indicates and leads to the information society:

1. Increasing international tax competition
   Countries compete for investments and skilled labor by reducing tax rates.
2. The new global division of labor
   The most developed countries cannot rely on routine jobs in the future, so they must specialize in creative work that is based on higher expertise and work to improve productivity both through increased added value and the development of production processes.
3. Population ageing
4. Increasing pressures on the welfare society
5. The second phase of the information society
6. The rise of cultural industries
7. The rise of bio-industries
8. Regional concentration
9. A deepening global divide
10. The spread of a “culture of emergency”

All this indicates that people are getting lazier and and leaning more and more to the social welfare and are getting used that everything is handled on the plate. I believe that our society has taken wrong direction. People are keen to want country which has it's focus on socialism and think that this is correct way, but based on those points, socialism requires high taxes, but it contradicts to the first point of those ten. Actually the first point also doesn't get along with rest of the points. Seems that those trends will never exist fully in some society, but they will have compromises and overlaps.

Value-based Management

Page 14 in PDF (-6- in the document header)
The following list describes the values which could serve as the basis for the continued combination of the welfare state and the information  society. The listed values are updated versions of the values underlying the original European welfare state and innovative entrepreneurial. A successful reform requires from politicians value-based management.

1. Caring
2. Confidence
3. Communality
4. Encouragement
5. Freedom
6. Creativity
7. Courage
8. Visionariness
9. Balance
10. Meaningfulness

This makes me even more worrying. It has been described that creativity can come only when people are free and they get confidence that somebody cares from them and their life means something. It basically is capitalism and socialism together. 

Page 16 in PDF (-8- in the document header) 
In practice, if we are to meet global competition by implementing the above-mentioned development scenario and adopting the values described above for this scenario, we must take into account the following key concepts related to social development:

1. A creative economy
2. A creative welfare society
3. Humanly meaningful development
4. A global culture

We, as a species, haven't got this far by getting things on the plate. Humans are lazy, laziness is the power which has got us so far. If we have items on the plate, who wants to think how to do things better? What motivates them? Even now there is generation who has graduated high school, sitting home with parents, depending on social welfare, parents and they have one meaning. Maybe I come up with some project which sets me in infinite loop of income. When that happens, what they will do next? Nothing, spend life away. No real value to the overall World.

We need to get back to capitalism and start putting people in competition. This is what brings new ideas, innovation. Let's go back being animals as we have been designed to be.

Conclusion

Page 23 in PDF (-15- in the document header)
The success of the information society and the provision of equal opportunities in the welfare society are, eventually, based on an inclusive and high-quality education and training system.

This actually is not working, I believe that it was a vision in 2004, but in 2017 there i a trend not to work, not to get outside your box. Do as less as possible to get paycheck and nothing more. Pay taxes, get some nicer roads to commute on, get your kids to kindergarten. Assume that teachers are responsible of your child well-being. Socialism is not a way how we can create innovation. This is the way how we destroy our community and maybe even our species. Not now, not tomorrow, but what about in a century?