Increasing general public mobility

The demographic shift that has not been considered or allowed, because of its political sensitivity, is the globalization of population movements. The free movement of capital is now seen as normal, and the uninhibited free trade in goods and services is the goal of governments through the World Trade Organization (WTO). However, genuine globalization should also imply a third condition: that all people should be able to move freely to live and work wherever they like. This is the one change that would allow optimization of the population to environmental carrying capacity, and a rapid reduction in the economic and social disparities between countries that are so destabilizing at present. Efforts in the European Union to eliminate barriers to internal population movements are a precursor of what will be required.