ABSTRACT
Moderation is becoming an indispensable part of solving growing global economic, social, and environmental problems, as evidenced by the United Nation's (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Failure to recognize that fact as an economic policy priority can threaten our well-being and Earth's existence.
This chapter aims to identify some basic concepts, examples, and levels of the economics of moderation and the related dilemmas. First, it will explore the relations between such concepts as the economics of regulation, global rationality, common good, and sustainable development. Second, it will outline important examples of the economics of moderation in ‘new economic thinking’, like the collaborative economy, sharing economy, solidarity economy, social entrepreneurship, cooperative economics, and degrowth. Third, it will focus on possible levels of introducing an economy of moderation, related dilemmas, and recommendations.
Arguably, the economics of moderation requires a multi-level approach and the greatest contemporary challenge entails defining the scope and extent to which matters pertaining to the preservation of the common good and the integration of moderation into economic activities ought to be regulated from above and to what point they should remain subject of market competition. This results from the fact that neither the state alone nor the market nor the numerous activities of social movements can counter contemporary sustainable challenges on their own.
