“We need a more humane capitalism”, British professor says.

Just as Americans might find it uncivilized that children in some parts of Africa can’t go to school if their parents can't pay for the tuition, many Europeans find it odd that Americans are forced to pay for their own medical care.

As rising unemployment and increased financial insecurity hits millions of people all over the world, economists start to question capitalism and its raw character. Some argue that the time has come for a more humane kind of economic approach that create a more thoughtful society for everyone.

“Another ideological god has failed,” Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf writes, referring to the neo-liberal deregulation of markets, combined with state support for corporations, that President Ronald Reagan and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher promoted aggressively in the ’80s.

“This crisis has demonstrated the failure of the ‘Anglo-American’ model of capitalism, as even many staunch defenders of capitalism acknowledge”, David Moberg, a senior editor of In These Times, clarifies.

Some say it all boils down to progress – and how progress is defined. Richard Layard, professor at the London School of Economics and author of the books “Happiness” and “A Good Childhood”, raises the question. For him, the answer is to be found in the Scandinavian social-liberal system.

For centuries the question of progress has been investigated by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Most scientists agree that increased wealth doesn’t necessarily reduce misery or create happiness. Quite the opposite, it sometimes seems. Happiness has not increased since the 1950s in the US and the UK, while economic growth and technical innovation has exploded. During the same period another odd phenomena has occurred among people in the developed world. We’ve stopped trusting each other. In the 1960s, 60 percent of the adults said they believed that “most people can be trusted”. The same figure today has dropped to 30 percent.

So what happened? How did we become so miserable and greedy? One possible answer is that we have become too individualistic and lost track of the society’s common purpose. As we praise success and status we forget and neglect things such as mutual respect.

In a column in the Financial Times, Richard Layard points out that wealth and innovation shouldn’t be seen as an ultimate goal but rather as a useful instrument. We should “stop worshiping money and create a more humane society where the quality of human experience is the criterion”. Therefore, he wants the politicians to take a closer look at the Scandinavian political and collective system.

“The Scandinavians have managed to combine effective economies with much greater equality and mutual respect. They have the greatest level of trust and happiness of any country in the world”, Richard Layard writes in the FT.

What we need is an ethical code in all professions and a trend away from excessive individualism and toward greater social responsibility, he points out.

“We do not want communism – as research shows that communist countries were the least happy in the world and also inefficient. But we need a more humane brand of capitalism”, he writes.

In short; a society where you feel that other people are on your side. Not one where you’re afraid of getting conned by your private banker or laid-off while your boss is joy-riding in the company’s private jet.