We’re running out of time. There’s spreading awareness of the
institutional failure that is driving humans toward self-extinction, and
related calls for a deep transformation of our economy. This is happening in
every quarter, from college campuses to the Vatican to the U.S. presidential
debates. Everywhere we hear calls for an economy that serves the well-being of people and Earth.
Pope Francis has spoken of the social and environmental failures
of an economy devoted to the idolatry of money. Workers and their unions are joining in with the wrenching observation that “There are
no good jobs on a dead planet.”
There is a related rising awareness of the need for a serious
update to how we study and think about economics and prepare our future leaders.
With few exceptions, economics, as it’s taught in universities, relies on the
same badly flawed theories and ethical principles that bear major
responsibility for the unfolding crisis. It values life only for its market
price; uses GDP growth as the defining measure of economic performance; assures
students that maximizing personal financial return benefits society; recommends
policies that prioritize corporate profits over human and planetary well-being, and ignores the natural limits of a finite planet.
Here are eight guiding principles for a reformed economic theory to guide our path to a new economy for the 21st century.
Principle 1: Evaluate the economy’s performance by indicators of
the well-being of people and planet; not the growth of GDP.
Growing GDP serves well if our goal is only to increase the
financial assets of the rich so they can claim an ever-growing
share of the remaining real wealth of a
dying Earth. If our priority is to meet the essential needs for food, water,
shelter, and other basics for all the world’s people, then we must measure for
those results so that we can get the outcomes we really want.
Principle 2: Seek only that which benefits life; not that which
harms life.
We should seek to eliminate war, financial speculation,
consumption of harmful or unnecessary products, and industrial agriculture that
pollutes the soil, air, and water and produces food of questionable nutritional
value. We can eliminate most driving by designing infrastructure to support
people living close to where they work, shop, and play. We can eliminate most
global movement of people and goods by keeping production and consumption
local, using recycled materials, and substituting electronic communication for
global business travel.
The labor and resources thus freed up can be redirected to
raising and educating our children, caring for the elderly, restoring the
health and vitality of Earth’s regenerative
systems, rebuilding the social
infrastructure of community, and rebuilding physical infrastructure in ways
that reduce dependence on fossil fuels and simultaneously strengthen our beneficial
connections with one another and nature.
Principle 3: Honor and reward all who provide beneficial labor,
including nature; not those who exploit it to get rich.
Life depends on the labor of nature and people. Too often, the
current economic system rewards those claiming ownership rather than those
performing useful labor. Instead we should follow the model set by traditional
societies, in which we earn our share in the surplus of the commons through our
labor in service of it. Much of the current economy’s dysfunction can be
overcome by eliminating the division of society between owners and workers—a
problem corrected through worker ownership combined with an ethical frame that recognizes our well-being
depends on much more than just financial return.
Principle 4: Create society’s money supply through a transparent
public process to advance the common good; not through proprietary processes
that grow the profits of for-profit banks.
In a modern society, those who control the creation and
allocation of money control the lives of everyone. It defies reason to assume
that society benefits from giving this power to global for-profit banks
dedicated to maximizing profits for the already richest among us. The system of
money creation and allocation must be public, transparent, and accountable to
the people. It must reside in democratic governments and be administered by
public banks supplemented by individual community-owned, cooperative banks
whose lending supports local home and business ownership.
Principle 5: Educate for a lifetime of learning in service to
life-seeking communities; not for service to for-profit corporations.
Most university economics courses currently promote societal
psychopathology as a human ideal and give legitimacy to institutions that serve
only to make money, without regard for the common good. We must prepare youth
for future leadership that builds on a moral foundation that recognizes our
responsibility for one another and Earth, favors cooperation over competition,
and prioritizes life over money and community well-being over corporate
profits.
No one knows how to get where we now must go, and education
cannot provide us with answers we do not have. Education can, however, prepare
us to be lifelong learners, skilled in asking the right questions and in
working together to find and share answers.
Principle 6: Create and apply technology only to serve life; not
to displace or destroy it.
Technology must be life’s servant. Deciding how to apply
technology based solely on what will produce the greatest short-term financial
return is madness. Humans have the right and the means to assure that
technology is used only to serve humanity as a whole, such as by eliminating
destructive environmental impacts, restoring the regenerative capacity of Earth
systems, facilitating global understanding, and advancing social justice,
cooperation, and learning.
Principle 7: Organize as cooperative, inclusive, self-reliant,
regenerative communities that share knowledge and technology to serve life; not
as incorporated pools of money competing to grow by exploiting life.
We can meet our needs through constant cyclical flows of
resources. That was our standard way of living until less than 100 years ago.
We can do it again. Urban and rural dwellers can rediscover their
interdependence as cities source food, timber, fiber, pulp, and recreational
opportunities from nearby rural areas and rural areas regenerate their soils
with bio-wastes from nearby urban areas and enjoy the benefits of urban culture.
Suburbs can convert to urban or rural habitats.
Principle 8: Seek a mutually beneficial population balance
between humans and Earth’s other species; not the dominance of humans over all
others.
The health of any natural ecosystem depends on its ability to
balance the populations of its varied species. This means maintaining free
access to reproductive health care options and removing barriers to women in
education and the workplace. Only starting from this point can we both maintain
a free society and manage our population size.
The basic frame of 21st century economics contrasts sharply with
that of the 20th century economics it must now displace. The new frame is far
more complex and nuanced. Yet most people can readily grasp it because it is
logical, consistent with foundational ethical principles, and reflects the
reality that most people are kind, honest, find pleasure in helping others, and
recognize that we all depend on the health of our Mother Earth.
David Korten wrote this article for YES! Magazine. It is
excerpted from a longer working paper “A 21st Century Economics for the
People of a Living Earth” written as input to
various discussions mentioned in this article. He holds M.B.A. and Ph.D.
degrees from the Stanford Business School and was a professor at the Harvard
Business School. He is co-founder of YES! Magazine, president of the Living Economies Forum, and author of When Corporations
Rule the World. Also printed in Vox Populi. Illustration by Hurca.
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Monday, July 8, 2019
An economic system that serves everyone and the planet is necessary for our survival by David Korten
Labels:
eco/genocide,
Mammon
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