Every day the news is full of stories of failure and continuing dysfunction. The reporters, journalists, presenters, politicians and experts wring their hands and declare that more must be done, almost invariably at greater financial cost. And yet the decline continues. We have not seen any significant change to this trend since the 1970s. A sense of hopelessness and acquiescence to the inevitable prevails.

We do have an alternative option today. Sadly, not one mainstream actor is talking about this. Yet.

Taking a pessimistic view of this dire situation, we can predict that it will continue to accelerate and embed, as the impotent agents of change become ever more fearful and entrenched. A common response to fear.

More positively, it is possible as the multiple crises accumulate and deepen that leaders will look beyond the conventional boundaries for more extreme alternatives.

At the New Zealand Institute of Resource Based Economics we are researching, investigating, sharing and promulgating such ideas in preparation.