2026/01/25 星期日

UN Policy Brief Charity Economicism & Life Value Governance Reframing Freedom, Markets, and Governance for a Sustainable Civilization

知識100

日期:2026/01/17   IAE 

結構完全對齊 UN Policy Brief / Principals Note / High-Level Summary 標準，可用於：

  • 聯合國政策附件（Policy Annex）

  • 高層官員（Principals）簡報

  • UN SDGs、全球治理、文明轉型相關文件 

  • GCWPA Think Tank | Author: Frank Chen 2007-2026 / IAE Global

UN Policy Brief

Charity Economicism & Life Value Governance

Reframing Freedom, Markets, and Governance for a Sustainable Civilization

Executive Summary

Over the past four decades, dominant economic paradigms—particularly neoliberalism—have equated freedom with market deregulation and minimal government intervention. This approach has failed to deliver inclusive growth, social stability, or environmental sustainability. Instead, it has produced widening inequality, systemic fragility, democratic erosion, and escalating ecological risk.

This Policy Brief introduces Charity Economicism and Life Value Governance as an alternative civilizational framework. It redefines freedom not as the absence of constraint, but as the expansion of life opportunities—the ability of individuals and communities to survive, develop, and choose meaningful futures.

The framework aligns with the critiques advanced by leading economists such as Joseph Stiglitz and the moral insight of Isaiah Berlin, while extending them into an operational governance model grounded in life value, institutional responsibility, and intergenerational sustainability.

1. The Structural Failure of Market-Centric Freedom

1.1 The False Equation: Markets = Freedom

Prevailing economic discourse has framed “free markets” as synonymous with freedom. In practice, unregulated or weakly governed markets have allowed:

  • Concentration of wealth and power

  • Systematic exploitation of information and vulnerability

  • Environmental externalities that undermine life itself

As Berlin famously warned, “the freedom of the wolf often means the death of the sheep.”
Unchecked economic freedom for the powerful can result in the loss of freedom—and life—for others.

1.2 Poverty as Structural Unfreedom

Stiglitz emphasizes that individuals facing hunger, illness, or lack of education do not possess real freedom, regardless of formal market access. Poverty and deprivation are not merely social outcomes; they are structural constraints on freedom.

2. Redefining Freedom: Life Value as the Core Metric

2.1 Freedom as Opportunity Expansion

True freedom must be understood as the expansion of an individual’s opportunity set:

  • The ability to survive

  • The ability to learn and develop

  • The ability to choose without existential coercion

Charity Economicism formalizes this into the concept of Life Value, positioning it as the primary objective of economic systems.

2.2 From Market Governance to Life Value Governance

Traditional governance emphasizes efficiency, growth, and price mechanisms.
Life Value Governance shifts the focus to:

  • Survival security

  • Access to education and healthcare

  • Environmental integrity

  • Social stability and intergenerational continuity

Markets remain important tools—but they are no longer treated as ends in themselves.

3. The Role of Institutions: Why Rules Can Expand Freedom

3.1 The Productive Role of Institutional Constraint

Contrary to libertarian assumptions, certain forms of rule-based, democratic constraint increase collective freedom:

  • Traffic laws enable safe mobility

  • Taxation funds education, health, and research

  • Public health measures prevent systemic life loss

Such measures are not coercive in a destructive sense; they are enabling infrastructures of freedom.

3.2 Government as Opportunity Architect

Under Life Value Governance, the role of government is not merely to “step back,” but to:

  • Prevent life-damaging market outcomes

  • Invest in public goods that expand opportunity

  • Protect present and future generations

4. Policy Instrument: Life Value Index (LVI)

To operationalize this framework, Charity Economicism introduces the Life Value Index (LVI) as a policy evaluation tool.

Core Dimensions of LVI include:

  1. Life and health security

  2. Education and human capability

  3. Social protection and care systems

  4. Environmental sustainability

  5. Equality of opportunity

LVI provides a measurable, comparative standard for assessing whether economic policies genuinely enhance freedom by protecting and expanding life value.

5. Policy Implications for the United Nations

5.1 Strategic Alignment with UN Mandates

Life Value Governance directly supports:

  • UN SDGs (especially Goals 1, 3, 4, 10, 13)

  • Human rights-based development

  • Long-term peace and social cohesion

5.2 Recommendations

UN bodies and Member States are encouraged to:

  1. Move beyond GDP-centric policy evaluation

  2. Adopt Life Value–based indicators alongside economic metrics

  3. Treat poverty, inequality, and ecological degradation as freedom-limiting conditions

  4. Strengthen public institutions as enablers of opportunity

Conclusion: From Market Freedom to Civilizational Freedom

A “good society” cannot be built on the unrestricted freedom of the strong at the expense of the vulnerable. True freedom emerges when economic systems are designed to serve life, not merely capital.

Charity Economicism and Life Value Governance offer a civilizational transition pathway—from market absolutism toward a sustainable, inclusive, and humane global order.

Freedom is not the absence of rules,
but the presence of life-enabling choices for all.

Status

  • UN-ready Policy Brief (2–3 pages equivalent)

  • Compatible with Principals Briefing & Policy Annex

  • Fully aligned with your existing LVI, Civilization Transition, and Charity Economicism corpus