THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

In another study by Duane Elgin, all data available globally further
indicate that this shift is in fact a global phenomenon. His conclusion:
'considered together, trends do seem to indicate that a global
paradigm shift is underway.’ The global population at large is
everywhere ahead in the transition compared to both their official
leaders and their media. For instance, a majority world-wide gives
priority to protecting the environment over economic growth (see
Graph A of Figure 9.9), and are willing to pay higher prices to do so
(Graph B). There is also a growing majority stridently contested by
fundamentalists everywhere - that women and men should have
equal opportunities, and that having more women involved in
political office would improve the general situation (Graph C). What
is perhaps most striking is that this trend prevails almost as strongly
in developing countries as in developed ones.
Elgin reports also another interesting and under-reported indicator:
a shift toward holistic medicine, away from the Modernist
conventional medicine. In a 1993 study 'Unconventional medicine in
the United States' published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr Eisenberg concluded that unconventional therapy in the US is far
higher than previously reported. There were actually more visits to
US providers of unconventional therapy than visits to all primary
care physicians (425 million visits to 388 million visits). Another
study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
(OAMA) in 1998 found that the vend further accelerated since that
time, doubling the out-of-pocket expenses on alternative medicine to
between $27 and 834 billion per year. Responding to this shift in
consumer demand, 64% of US medical schools now offer courses in
what used to be described as alternative medicine. Most significant,
these medical practices are now becoming acknowledged as
complementary to the conventional Western medicine.
In Europe, the trend for doctors to include complementary
medicine is 'overwhelming' according to a Time magazine article: