By Orio Giarini

Introduction:

The New Welfare that has to be developed in the future must, inevitably, take account of the context of the New Economy which is characterized by the predominance of services as factors of production. This, rather than the limits to the industrial revolution, is the key change in economics as basis for the building of the wealth of nations. The Club of Rome achieved worldwide renown, sometimes stimulated by strong criticism, after the publication in 1972 of its report on ”Limits to Growth”. This was a very critical time since, after World War II the high rate of growth of the economies of most of the industrialized countries had, until then, been around 6% per year. From 1973 until the present this rate of growth has declined, on average, to about 2% and less per year. The “scandal” of the Club of Rome consisted in the fact that doubts were expressed as to the possibility of a continued, and as one would say today, a “sustainable” growth.  READ FULL PAPER