I become a diehard logical positivist when reading something like this

A huge challenge will be to design an international set of industrial policy standards to avoid the current trend towards highly nationalist policies at the expense of others, e.g. conflictual trade and tariff wars. The ultimate goal should be to develop a cooperative global governance that allows industrial policies on a national or transnational level, for reasons that are commonly seen as legitimate. Having such rules could even be a prerequisite for saving free trade in all other well-defined sectors where markets function to the benefit of the many. https://www.intereconomics.eu/contents/year/2025/number/5/article/winning-back-the-future-preparing-for-a-comeback-of-democracy.html

It’s not just that weasel phrase: “could even be a prerequisite,” which of course entails “may still not be one”. It’s not just that high-altitude floating signifier, “cooperative global governance”–think here the Academy of Lagado’s efforts to extract sunbeams from cucumbers. No, it’s that god-awful “design”.

Are there actually people who believe macro-design produces really-existing necessary and sufficient conditions for this or that human behavior? Design as control of inputs, processes and outputs of this most complex socio-political-economic-ecological globe?

I wish these believers the best, but in the absence of verification criteria for their claims, I’ll treat them as self-refuting propositions as in “everything is relative.”