It is usually considered that the main engine of society is the economy; In other words, that work and money are the main factors that move society. Material issues have defined societies, mainly since the 1950s, after World War II. Putting the focus on the economy, on obtaining more material and human resources, Europe was able to be rebuilt after the war and generate a hopeful horizon for people, by relating the work effort with obtaining sufficient benefits to live with dignity. Economic issues were the center of concern in Western societies, to the point of considering that everything could be bought, that all the answers to one's ills could be solved with money.
Capitalism, its perfection, was the engine of society. The economic engine is the one that continues to mark the day to day of people and states. When we say engine of society, we seek to designate which are the main elements that organize, structure and mobilize people, leading them to act in the same direction.
If during the last fifty years of the last century the economy was the motor of society, after twenty-two years of the new century we should ask ourselves what is the new motor of society in the 21st century. There have been two events, the global financial crisis of 2008 and the pandemic crisis in 2020, which have caused profound changes in vital priorities in the mentality of society. The financial crisis of 2008 brought with it the distrust of many people in the capitalist system, and the confinement derived from the pandemic crisis brought to the surface in many people the feeling that they were wasting their lives and the desire to experience a change in the lifestyle that they had adopted.
The economy continues to be the engine of society, but it is no longer the only power that drives it. Today we see how a large number of people give up better salaries or prioritize issues of an affective nature over those that guarantee obtaining a better social status. Faith in capitalism seems to decline in favor of becoming fully aware that the material prevails over the spiritual in an economic system. It is not a political reaction but a physical reaction, when we observe how time slips away in distractions that take us away from our purpose, which entails living better and not with more things. Possessing things can lead us to be possessed by them. The engine of society is no longer just economic; Now it is crucial to obtain new social rights for people.
Even the State begins to consider its role, not only its function of providing citizens with the minimum material needs, but also of caring for their emotional well-being. States are exploring creating a universal income that people would earn whether they work or not. At the same time that symptoms of weakening of the welfare state model are perceived, which implies losing or undermining rights, it seems that the concern of citizens is no longer only focused on the increase in wages, but also on the motivation when it comes to go to their workplaces. Everything seems to indicate that the engine of society is shifting from the economy towards knowing what should be the main purpose of life.
Individuals experience a displacement from the imperative of having to be productive to feeling with the right to demand from the State to be released from the burdens of work or from the role assigned to them as consumers. This process that leads us to stop understanding the economy as the motor of history leads us to question ourselves about what the new model of society will be, where work and consumption lose their backbone role. It forces us to imagine a world where, thanks to artificial intelligence and advances in science, man will be able to reduce or rethink the role of work and money.
The economy and the market will continue to structure societies, but there will no longer be the desire, or the obsession, to get the best car, the latest generation mobile phone or the trendiest sports shoes. The incentive that will drive societies will no longer be consumption. Beyond the ideologies that seek to stigmatize the current economic system for their own political benefit, a change in the mentality of societies is opening up in which the belief that the new engine of history is the desires and aspirations of the people triumphs. .
