Joan Coscubiela i Conesa presents the current worldwide financial and economic crisis as offering a unique opportunity to reflect on and look for alternative models. The lecture is based on a series of questions: Is a globalised society viable without any kind of democratic, political or social control? Is it fair to now demand that capitalism regulate the markets? Should the state intervene to save financial firms? What is the role of the European Union and the Eurozone? Should we continue with a competitive model based on externalising risk? The speaker defends the viability of the Spanish and European social model, in contrast to the US model, not only as a guarantee of justice and equality, but also in terms of economic efficiency. The new global employment market, which is regulated only by economic trends and beyond the reach of supranational institutions, is another of the harmful consequences of the overabundance of resources that we enjoyed until recently, as it rewarded low qualified jobs with high salaries, which, among other things, disheartens qualified workers and encourages students to leave school at a younger age in Spain.