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This is really the time for big ideas like 'after capitalism', since capitalism seems to be doing its best to fail and need a successor! I've not read this yet but agree with the notion of greater efficiency from a collaborative system compared to an exploitive system. The challenge is in implementation, can it be done without waiting first for the existing economy to entirely turn to dust? Schweickart's strength is that his ideas could be implemented in geographical patches of any size, without requiring full global implementation. However this still positions exploitive and collaborative in direct competition, with the most ruthless having an unfair advantage.
So my suggestion would be to combine these ideas with a global correction for the vast inequalities of the past, present and future. This means installing a feedback loop on wealth that corrects against over-accumulation of wealth by individuals, corporates and states. This would work together with a wider understanding of wealth as dangerous when accumulated far beyond one's needs. There are different ways to achieve this but the key would be to inspire a cultural shift where excess wealth no longer gives great status. Instead status would correspond to people's capacity and practise of giving to help others.
Feedback of wealth would be sufficient to stimulate a fast and lasting economic recovery. Nothing else currently being considered as economic 'stimulus' seems sufficient. It would also create a level playing field where the values of human economic interaction are given a reality check so that socialist and capitalist models could compete fairly. Then we may see clever collaborative forms of organisation becoming more prevalent.
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After Capitalism (New Critical Theory) by David Schweickart
blindspotter, March 9, 2009
This is really the time for big ideas like 'after capitalism', since capitalism seems to be doing its best to fail and need a successor! I've not read this yet but agree with the notion of greater efficiency from a collaborative system compared to an exploitive system. The challenge is in implementation, can it be done without waiting first for the existing economy to entirely turn to dust? Schweickart's strength is that his ideas could be implemented in geographical patches of any size, without requiring full global implementation. However this still positions exploitive and collaborative in direct competition, with the most ruthless having an unfair advantage.So my suggestion would be to combine these ideas with a global correction for the vast inequalities of the past, present and future. This means installing a feedback loop on wealth that corrects against over-accumulation of wealth by individuals, corporates and states. This would work together with a wider understanding of wealth as dangerous when accumulated far beyond one's needs. There are different ways to achieve this but the key would be to inspire a cultural shift where excess wealth no longer gives great status. Instead status would correspond to people's capacity and practise of giving to help others.
Feedback of wealth would be sufficient to stimulate a fast and lasting economic recovery. Nothing else currently being considered as economic 'stimulus' seems sufficient. It would also create a level playing field where the values of human economic interaction are given a reality check so that socialist and capitalist models could compete fairly. Then we may see clever collaborative forms of organisation becoming more prevalent.
(1 of 5 readers found this comment helpful)