Free Party MP: President's new economy and community vision is awesome

TALLINN – According to Free Party MP Artur Talvik, President Kersti Kaljulaid's Independence Day speech held out a vision of the future, but putting it into practice requires the whole society's commitment for Estonia to do well and not groan under poverty and unemployment twenty years hence.

"In a situation where the skills of thousands of people could become less necessary in the near future owing to technological progress, our chance lies in giving local communities a bigger role in organizing life so that more economic activity and spirit of innovation would come into being within them," Talvik said. "Community-based economic activity and life organization is not a system of closed clans but the lifestyle of self-sufficient educated citizens united by the Estonian spirit."

Talvik pointed out that the economy and labor market were transforming fast because of the ripening of a new technology revolution but societal organization failed to keep pace with it. New technologies and apps are simplifying the consumption of services and traditional jobs are on the way out, he observed.

"Estonia is faced with the challenge of reforming its social security system and employment policy. The development of technology must not become a cause of poverty, unemployment and unrest but an opportunity to become more enterprising and creative, and invest in small smart businesses. I'm glad that the president pointed the way," the Free Party politician said.

As the president rightly observed, communal activities were very widespread in Estonia even before World War II, Talvik said. "We have to revive them in a new form. Such thinking could be called a liberal conservative worldview – it preserves experience, is open to the new and cherishes freedom."