Good news

This essay by John Quiggin has cheered me up.  He says many encouraging things, including this:

The ultimate barriers to achieving a good life for all, free of the lash of financial necessity, are neither technological nor environmental. They are in our beliefs, values and social institutions.

If that's right then the most important work to be done is in changing the prevailing beliefs, etc. Not that that is easy to do, but if Quiggin is right then a) we're not all doomed (this is much more important than b), and b) philosophers have the potential to make a significant contribution to the world.  I hope he's right.