Great article Joel. I’m curious if you’ve come across any viable alternatives to the systems we know today. We (I mean collectively) continue landing on the conclusion that capitalism with all its flaws is still better than the alternatives. This narrative favors those who are in power for sure, but what is an alternative that the world could transition into willingly and peacefully?
Hi Roberto, thanks for the question! The answer deserves far more than what I can offer here, but in short yes there are many great alternatives. Of course, I don't think we will ever not need an economic system, and I do think capitalism will stick around for a long while. I don't, like some, thing we will get to a "post-money" society. That said, the *flavor* of capitalism we practice could make some significant changes for the better in just a short amount of time.
A few things we could do by 2030 that would have profound implications on quality of life for people and the planet: An immediate shift towards donut / circular economics at an an enterprise level, a four day work week, taxing capital gains, some degree of universal basic income, integrating social metrics into our economic models, transitioning our electric grids off fossil fuels to solar and supplemented by hydropower, rethinking century old economic subsidies and policies for agriculture to bring family farms back and restore top soil, undoing gerrymandering and redlining, quadratic voting, and implementing universal healthcare. All of this could be implemented in just a few years if we had the collective will.
Rutger Bregman wrote a great little book called "Utopia for Realists" that is chalk full of data and explains a lot of how everything I've listed above has been exceptionally successful where it has been implemented. As a starting place, I would also recommend "Betterness" by Umair Haque, and "Whats's our Problem?" (eBook) by Tim Urban. I list many other reading suggestions here: https://www.joelfariss.com/resources
Finally, I'll say that while the above interventions would lead to a better reality for most Americans, we also need more ideas. More imagination. More people thinking about what is possible, even if not yet feasible. More people engaged in the socially generative dialogue about how to design systems that work for more people.
Great article Joel. I’m curious if you’ve come across any viable alternatives to the systems we know today. We (I mean collectively) continue landing on the conclusion that capitalism with all its flaws is still better than the alternatives. This narrative favors those who are in power for sure, but what is an alternative that the world could transition into willingly and peacefully?
Hi Roberto, thanks for the question! The answer deserves far more than what I can offer here, but in short yes there are many great alternatives. Of course, I don't think we will ever not need an economic system, and I do think capitalism will stick around for a long while. I don't, like some, thing we will get to a "post-money" society. That said, the *flavor* of capitalism we practice could make some significant changes for the better in just a short amount of time.
A few things we could do by 2030 that would have profound implications on quality of life for people and the planet: An immediate shift towards donut / circular economics at an an enterprise level, a four day work week, taxing capital gains, some degree of universal basic income, integrating social metrics into our economic models, transitioning our electric grids off fossil fuels to solar and supplemented by hydropower, rethinking century old economic subsidies and policies for agriculture to bring family farms back and restore top soil, undoing gerrymandering and redlining, quadratic voting, and implementing universal healthcare. All of this could be implemented in just a few years if we had the collective will.
Rutger Bregman wrote a great little book called "Utopia for Realists" that is chalk full of data and explains a lot of how everything I've listed above has been exceptionally successful where it has been implemented. As a starting place, I would also recommend "Betterness" by Umair Haque, and "Whats's our Problem?" (eBook) by Tim Urban. I list many other reading suggestions here: https://www.joelfariss.com/resources
Finally, I'll say that while the above interventions would lead to a better reality for most Americans, we also need more ideas. More imagination. More people thinking about what is possible, even if not yet feasible. More people engaged in the socially generative dialogue about how to design systems that work for more people.
Thanks again for the question, keep 'em coming!