Rousseau-esque angst over modern life?

THE VEIL OF CIRCUMSTANCE: TECHNOLOGY, VALUES, DEHUMANIZATION AND THE FUTURE OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICS By Jorgen Orstrom Moller (Singapore, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2016)

AS the subtitle suggests, this book is about the most fundamental challenges now facing the world economy and its nation-states. The author - a now-retired senior career diplomat with Denmark's foreign ministry, Danish ambassador to Singapore from 1997 - 2005, and author of several other books - is pessimistic about the outlook for the global economy. Debts and falling productivity levels in the US, Europe and Japan will cause the global economy to slow over the next quarter of a century. "But now", he asks, "who really believes in a future anymore? At best the world has come to a standstill; at worst, it is going to reverse".

Businesses are no longer responsible long-term stakeholders in society. "The great entrepreneur of the past - proud to create a massive enterprise and jobs for thousands of people - does not exist anymore . . . today's wealthy earn their money through speculation in financial instruments diverting funds out of the productive part of the economy . . ." If business is now part of the problem, the current political system is no better: it "has lost its connection to the people, failing to come up with solutions to problems that citizens most care about".