All economists will tell you that the velocity at which money circulates is one of the key indicators of a successful economy. If I buy something from you, then you have to buy something from me in return. And this is true at every scale. If no one returns their apartment, there are no more apartments for someone else to move into; if no one leaves their work, there is no more job on the market. When nothing changes, this becomes a crisis, as moving in curiosity and iterating for success is the core of our humanity.
This is why some say that work is the way human beings achieve recognition and social utility. They take part. This velocity is then also the mark of the possibility to contribute, the mark of the possibility to belong.
Yet, youth, for most experiencing uncertainty, have created new systems of belongings. What we are building through the use of technology is, in truth, prosperity – a new prosperity founded on solidarity in action and in necessity. And while our global systems of protection against precarity is not yet established, we are softly implementing the systems of participation that will form the foundation of our post-labor human relationships.
Velocity was a truly relevant indicator of economic activity, and can still be one for the next generation, if we place velocity where it needs to be placed, the speed at which ideas circulate, interaction happens, and innovations build, outside of any labour-income related system.
I lead a youth-led effort to build the foundations of a renewed global solidarity. We are more than 2,000 youths from more than 145 countries. We work through 2 main advocacy channels: institutionalizing youth participation and creating a global digital civic platform for action, coordination, and more. You can learn more about this work here.
What inspires me is the possibility of creating a digital multilateralism powered by genuine participation and access. For this, we envision the premise of a renewed multilateral order — grounded in the UN Charter and conventions — that would become a global civic system for engagement, in real time. For we still have to do a global census, then we’ll create the global voting platform — with voted policies that could directly be integrated in our collective digital governance. You can read more about it and join us here.
There is an ideal, and we must achieve it while enjoying the process. Technology shields us from the marginalisation that the absence of work can impose. The velocity of our exchanges should be seen as the guarantee of this new socio-economic foundation taking shape before our eyes. I can’t wait to keep meeting incredibly ambitious youth who also want to reimagine, design and implement the ways our generation and the future ones will be able to relate better to one another, to nature, and to governance in order to create global structures where respect, justice and opportunities to one’s best are embedded.
Looking Ahead
My goal is to design intergenerational systems for global solidarity that foster the sharing of knowledge and resources. I am also building a tool to support real-time action and coordination between organizations, enabling natural talent and leadership to rise through actions, not words – as well as to have the means to do so. It’s called On My Way, and if you reach out, I will gladly share the beta link (to be launched at UNGA).
A Call on International Youth Day
Celebrating the youth within you.
To be young is to believe that anything is possible – or, at the very least, to have the resilience to fight as if there were nothing to lose and everything to create. Youth today are in a difficult situation, and it is perhaps precisely this difficulty that fuels us.
Happy Youth Day to the young, and to the adults who wish to recall with us this unstoppable sense of possibility. The easier it becomes to collaborate, exchange, and build upon one another’s work, the more beautiful our shared future will be. Feel with us that nothing is granted, yet everything is possible.
