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It was, of course, no coincidence that these female economists from London were telling their stories on supersized screens. They belong to the vanguard that sketches a new world by way of economic theory – one in which there is less flying. Carlota Perez and Mariana Mazzucato both filled an auditorium in Tivoli Vredenburg, and you would have wished that the House of Commons and the caretaker cabinet had been granted an afternoon of inspiration in Utrecht instead of Question Time.

The day before, Perez was awarded an honorary doctorate from Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ. Now, she was delivering the first annual ‘Transforming our Future’ lecture for the Utrecht ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ Centre for Global Challenges. It brought hope: within our reach lies a period of stable prosperity with decreasing inequality and sustainable growth. The British-Venezuelan professor studied how technological revolutions have repeatedly and fundamentally changed society over the past 250 years. She establishes a pattern.

First, there is a new technology (at the beginning of the 20th century, this was mass production; in the eighties ICT). This is followed by a bubble with rapidly increasing inequality (the roaring twenties; the nineties and noughties), followed by a recession, political unrest and populism (the thirties; present time). And now is when it counts. Society, politics and economics all transform into a new order, and a 'Golden Age' begins.

The last Golden Age of the West began some seventy years ago. The revolution called 'mass production' brought us the car, cheap oil and disposable plastic, but also the welfare state and a sharp  decline in inequality.

For longer than ever in the history of technology, we are now waiting in front of the mountain with a new Golden Age behind it. On all previous occasions, Perez saw this was the moment when the state played a crucial role, as Mazzucato also advocates with her 'entrepreneurial state'. In her latest book, Mission Economy, she provides a manual for reforming capitalism.

After the government gives wings to the new technology, a new lifestyle will emerge, according to Perez. After that, it is consumers who, with their changing demands, will further shape our new society.

The path up and across the mountain must be paved with billions for the necessary infrastructure. And this will only come about under great pressure from society. While uneasiness pounds the mountainside, the pressure increases. For instance, Royal Dutch Shell and the Dutch state have been ordered by the courts to reduce CO2 emissions because serious climate change leads to the violation of human rights.

The call for a green economy is getting louder and louder. Tata Steel is facing the social limit of its pollution - one that the government has never wanted to set. Only now that a RIVM report has confirmed what residents have been seeing in their streets for years, namely that ‘graphite rains’ and black snow cause cancer, are provincial and municipal authorities and members of parliament drawing a line in the sand.

But most IJmuiden citizens do not want to see Tata closed down. The company is as loved for its jobs as it is hated for its emissions. Which is why Tata Steel could well become the big game-changer. Just as its establishment in 1918 as ‘Koninklijke Nederlandse Hoogovens’ (Royal Dutch Steelworks) was the product of robust industrial politics, Tata's survival now depends on the reinvention of industrial politics.

The coal mines in Limburg, even more than Tata, bear witness to the ambition at the beginning of the last century to build a new economy - with great success. The 1983 RSV enquiry into the failed state aid to the RSV shipyard marked the end of those Dutch industrial politics. After that, no government was willing to get involved in aid programmes. Moreover, time had turned against the state. Thatcher and Reagan had declared administration itself to be a problem.

Now, step by step, we are crawling up the mountain. On the eve of the parliamentary debate on Tata Steel, even centre-right party CDA came up with a climate vision. Under one of the previous party leaders, Van Haersma Buma, the party sneered at 'climate believers'; with the vision paper by (temporary) member of parliament Henri Bontenbal, the current party leader Hoekstra dared to combine the words 'stewardship' and 'youth' at the party conference.

COVID-19 brought the state back on stage. It is important that it stays there. Because a better world does not start with yourself; it starts with a large national plan. If Tata wants to move towards clean sustainable steel, billions are needed for hydrogen and other green energy. Money to invest has never been so cheap – free even. On the other hand, the price of the climate debt is incalculable. Hopefully, both business and environmental interests will be taken into account tomorrow when the House of Commons discusses Dutch steel further.