Human capital in an industrial impasse

Abstract

Crises, shaking developed economic systems, force us to look for strategic ways of development, alternative to the usual paradigm, in which the main vector of development from a pre-industrial to a post-industrial economy leads to a global model of a consumer society, beyond which there is a social abyss. The latest shock to the global economic system is the COVID-19 pandemic. To overcome this misfortune, authoritative experts propose a series of radical organizational and economic measures, but their goal is old - to preserve consumption as the main economic motive of social behavior. This, in turn, leaves in force the global civilizational risks and preserves the status of a myth for the concept of «sustainable development». The proposed article contains an attempt to substantiate an alternative vision of the model of history, in which it is proposed to consider the pre-industrial type of economy as basic on the basis of such criteria as efficiency, prospects and adequacy of the reproduction of human capital. Finally, sustainable development of a socio-economic system of any scale is possible only if such antagonistic indicators as production efficiency and employment of the population are reconciled. And this is possible only in a pre-industrial type of economy.