It involves a new way of thinking and living "based on attention to people, and not primarily attention to goods" (Schumacher 70). Such a new system would prioritize the local community, would reinvigorate agriculture through the use of intermediate technology, would re-infuse rural life with dignity, and would stop depleting natural resources. He is fond of quoting the Gandhi dictum of "production by the masses, rather than mass production." Rather than pouring aid into developing nations, which has not be shown by positive economics to have any effect on reducing poverty, he believes there should be an emphasis on real education -- teaching people how to become sustainable with new affordable technology rather than just giving them factory jobs. The key is on making the technology affordable, which means relaxing the grip of capital and cost saving in view of the higher goal of helping human beings create fruitful lives for themselves. It also means that education be a transmission of wisdom, a return to past wisdom that counteracts the effects of modern nihilistic philosophies that no longer have the conviction of a meaningful hierarchy of values. This new kind of wisdom creates freedom and independence while returning the human being to purposeful work, which is essential to character. It would lead to the disappearance of most of the cynicism, despair, and loneliness created by globalism, whose work and consumption processes only lead to estrangement. Another suggestion is the return to small-scale outfits. This is essentially his way of emphasizing localism. People working in smaller units on their own land...

They are less damaging to the environment. They rely on and give back to the local community. Part of this would be a de-emphasis on exporting and importing. It would mean the creation of sustainable communities rather than communities working to make products for money that are then shipped out of the region. It would rely on a reconfiguration of economics to restore the balance between urban and rural, rather than continuing to emphasize city centers. Most important perhaps, it would reverse the prevailing idea of development that "What is best for the rich must be best for the poor" (Schumacher 158). In other words, these efforts would realign economic policy toward smallness, beauty, humanity, and character-building.
In sum, there is hope for character in a global age. It is daunting and would involve reorientation of many of the fundamental values of economic systems. It would include many of Schumacher's suggestions -- such as education toward wisdom and sustainability, the infusion of sacredness into nature and resources, the de-emphasis on greed and profit as the guiding notions, the return to local and regional economics -- and other besides. It is possible to see where there is time and room to develop these notions, rather than rely on purely positive economics and the prevailing trends toward expansion. Character can return to the global stage.

Bibliography

Friedman, Milton. "The Methodology of Positive Economics." In Essays in Positive Economics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1953.

Schumacher, E.F. Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.