Fast Company, July 25, 2019: Seven principles for building a fairer economy
In the U.S., the three wealthiest men own more wealth than all the wealth controlled by the 50% least wealthy Americans. Since 2009, 95% of income gains in the U.S. have gone to the top 1%. On top of that, the pressure for continuous production and consumption is depleting Earth’s natural resources at more than 1.5 times the planet’s ability to regenerate them and releasing harmful emissions that are warming the planet at a dangerous rate.
For people well-versed in the problems facing the U.S. today, these are familiar statistics, but to Ted Howard and Marjorie Kelly, the co-founder and executive vice president, respectively, of The Democracy Collaborative, they bear repeating—especially to prove that it doesn’t have to be this way.
In a new book called, The Making of a Democratic Economy: How to Build Prosperity for the Many, Not the Few, Howard and Kelly spell out seven principles for creating a fairer and more sustainable economy that could help pull the U.S. out of the “extractive economy” that exists today. Those values are community, inclusion, place, good work, sustainability, democratic ownership and ethical finance.
