if life chances weren't dictated by the accident of birth

I loved this little video outlining the vision of economist Jayati Ghosh. As part of a series called 'After Capitlism' in The Guardian video section, the film is titled 'It is irrational to be obsessed with GDP,' but really goes much beyond that. Ghosh's ideal society is one where one's "life chances are not dictated by the accident of birth".

When I started this blog, one of the things on my mind was how mindsets and social strata divide society conceptually and in terms of the opportunities available to us, acting as a barrier to the realisation of genuine places of meeting in society, where people of diverse backgrounds could meet: physically, socially, conceptually.

Ghosh's seven 'dreams' for realising the ideal society outline governance arrangements for how we might organise our economies and societies, and according to what principles. 

But I'll stop there. Do watch the video. It's short and sweet. And offers some great ideas for what a more balanced economy organised around the goals of society might look like, and how government and the participation of the masses might fit into it all. 

What I really loved is the simplicity with which all these things are described. Ghosh makes it all sound so scarily simple. Scary because perhaps the key thing missing from the creation of a society without divisions, from a common meeting space for all of humanity, from equal opportunity, is the willpower to make it happen, and united actions to achieve it.