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Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

In the contemporary US economy, to maintain the government can somehow be related to human fulfillment seems to be odd. This is especially the case during the Reagan administration when the government was seen to be inherently evil. The catchword was “To Get the Big Government Off Our Back”, because the government seems to always stand in the people's way, to interfere with their freedom, and to tax them unjustly. Government, therefore, is detrimental to human fulfillment. This anti‐government attitude is quite understandable. In the tradition of classical liberalism, human fulfillment is considered primarily an individual matter and predicated upon individual freedom. As the role of government increases, individual freedom is assumed to be decreased. There is a competitive or substitutive relationship between the government and the individual.

I. Introduction The political events of the late 1980's and the early 1990's taken place in Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and Nicaragua certainly represent the predicament, if not the collapse, of the communist economic system. Indeed, the centrally planned solution of attacking the basic economic problems of what, how, and for what seems to be never before as doubtful as it is now. Although the free market solution of the capitalist economy seems to progress smoothly in economic matters as far as the aggregate production is concerned, on the political and social front and with respect to the distribution of income, these economies are not as trouble‐free as they appear on the surface. The bloody poll tax revolt and the IRA attacks in England, the racial unrest in South Africa, and the drug and oil wars fought by the US are but a few examples of the troubles in the basically capitalist systems. Less obvious but surely problematic are the subtle trade wars among them, especially between the US and Japan, the hungry and homeless, and the mounting budget deficit of the US economy.

The importance of the golden mean or moderation in daily human life has been advocated almost universally by all the great teachers of the world. In the sphere of economics, however, it seems to have been largely ignored. Determines whether preliminary evidence can be found to give some support to the golden mean in economics. Uses the data for the 50 states of the USA, and the preliminary finding indicates that ideologically moderate (golden mean) states do seem to perform better than conservative states. But liberal states fare still better. One possible explanation for this is that liberal states in the USA are really moderates in the ideological spectrum of the world.

The beliefs that Government interferes with individual freedom and that private and public goods are competitive appear to be the two major reasons for man′s aversion to paying taxes. In reality, however, especially from a socio‐economic viewpoint, government also increases individual freedom, and the acceptance of necessity is as much an ingredient of good life as the attainment of freedom. Furthermore, private goods and public goods are as complementary as they are competitive. Thus, compared with the main‐ stream neoclassical economist, the social economist has a more complete understanding of the actual human condition and, in so doing, he can provide better solutions to the problem of man′s hostility to paying taxes.

Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.

A Soviet type of “shock therapy” is not likely to take place in China since a gradual economic reform has already improved the overall economic conditions. Argues that, for further economic development, however, the Chinese communists must recognize two basic facts: (1) Chinese communism has already fulfilled its historical mission by expelling foreign imperialism and domestic feudalism; (2) Marxism and Leninism are of foreign origin. This recognition is able to pave the way for a final adoption of the Taiwanese model of economic development, which is based on the ideas developed by Sun Yat‐Sen, who had never stopped to insist that modernization should not abandon the Chinese tradition, especially Confucianism.

Among developing countries, the Republic of China in Taiwan (hereinafter Taiwan) has been experiencing economic growth accompanied by improving income distribution. Between 1964 and 1980, the average annual growth rate of the real gross national product was 9.92 per cent (Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), 1982, p. 23). In the same period, the income ratio between the top 20 per cent and the bottom 20 per cent of families dropped from 5.33 to 4.17 and the Gini coefficient decreased from 0.36 to 0.30 (CEPD, 1982, p. 54; Directorate‐General of Budget Accounting and Statistics, 1980, (DGBAS), p. 44). To put it somewhat dif‐ferently, in 1964 the lowest fifth of households received 7.71 per cent of total personal income, and the highest fifth 41.07 per cent. But in 1980, the income share of the lowest fifth increased to 8.82 per cent while that of the highest fifth decreased to 36.80 per cent. The condition of greater equality in income distribution appears more obvious in the capital city of Taipei. In 1981, for instance, its Gini coefficient was estimated to be only 0.28 (Taipei Bureau of Budget, Accounting and Statistics, 1981, (TBBAS), P. 24).

Those economists who emphasise the short‐run analysis and its effects tend to value distributive equity more than productive efficiency, full employment more than price stability, fiscal policy more than monetary policy and collective necessity more than individual freedom. Those stressing the long‐run tend to believe in the opposite way. Any emphasis on one particular time frame, however, represents at best a partial and biased analysis of the whole economic reality and at worst a distortion of it. It would be necessary, therefore, in economic theory and policy, for both the short‐run and the long‐run effects, to be monitored with equal interest and intensity.

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the success of the US economy at the end of the second millennium do not necessarily mean the end of socialism. In fact both capitalism and socialism are beneficial for a unitary human development, which consists of both material and spiritual development. Capitalism, with its emphasis on self‐interest and individual freedom, has been crucial to material development. But socialism, with its preference for other‐interest and collective necessity, is conducive to spiritual development. Thus, what is needed for further development of the human race is a unitary economics that synergizes capitalism and scoialism.