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Is there such a thing as a distinctively Progressive economics? We believe so — just as there is also a distinctively corporate economics.
For example, in the lens of corporate economics, people are just one more resource to be exploited. Labor is just one more expense, its cost to be minimized to the maximum extent possible, or eliminated outright. In a Progressive perspective, meaningful work is among the prerequisites of a good life. Progressives believe that most of the value that derives from the work of the individual should benefit that individual, not "shareholders," not CEOs (who are no more, and no less, than one more employee). In the lens of corporate economics, the environment is simply a source of resources to be exploited, and environmental costs to be shirked. In a Progressive perspective, the environment is finite, the source of some of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences a human being can have, and a resource to be protected for the generations yet to come. In a corporate perspective, communities count for nothing, and business siting is purely a matter of finding the lowest possible costs and greatest opportunity to pollute. In a Progressive perspective, communities have intrinsic human value, and corporations who derive their very lifeblood from them also have obligations toward them. In a corporatist perspective, the corporation has no responsibility to community of any kind (and, indeed, no purpose of any kind whatsoever, other than the generation of profit for shareholders and corporate officers), and therefore, if costs can be offloaded to the community, they should be.
This kind of dichotomy can be explored at great length, but the key point to observe is this: Progressive economics places people, and the values they try to live by, at the very center of economic concerns, just as Progressive politics places people, and the values they try to live by, at the very center of the political process. By contrast, corporatism places people and the values they try to live by at the very periphery of every society in which it appears. People and their values are regarded as a nuisance or outright impediment to ever greater profits for a tiny minority. We see this most starkly in the doctrines of those who promote globalization: the IMF has decreed that civil society in every country must drastically cut or eliminate social safety nets, privatize essential governmental functions so corporations can turn them into profit-making opportunities, and abandon control of their own economies and resources for the exploitation of transnational corporations.
There are now two indispensable books that pave the way to a clear understanding of this dichotomy between Progressive and corporatist economics. The first, and older, of the two is E. F. Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered", which is reviewed below. A more recent, and far more systematic and up-to-date statement of Progressive economics may be found in Joel Magnuson's "Mindful Economics", also reviewed below.
Before we go on to those reviews,
however, a few words may be in order concerning the rationale behind the books we've chosen
here.
Schumacher's book provides a vision of "the way things should be".
Richard Robbins' "Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism" provides
a critique of "the way things are", as does Marjorie Kelly's devastating "The Divine Right of Capital". And Susan Meeker-Lowry's "Economics
as if the Earth Really Mattered" provides a set of tools which can go far
toward moving us from the way things are to the way things should be.
Next in the list is "Making a Place for Community", which
has, as its specific focus, solutions to the devastating and difficult problems
posed by globalization, corporate welfare, and suburban sprawl, all of which
serve to destroy the very foundation of civilization: community.
Last, but in many ways the best of all, is Joel Magnuson's "Mindful Economics" which covers all the bases: it is descriptive, in that it tells us how corporate capitalism currently works; it is diagnostic, in that it identifies the root causes of economic malfunction; and it is prescriptive in proposing a set of alternative economic institutions.
The Way Things Ought to Be
Small
is Beautfiful: Economics as if People Mattered
by E. F. Schumacher
What makes a classic work of prose classic? One signpost is surely this: the author is able to state, simply and clearly, fundamentally important insights. Another, less important, signpost — because genius often goes unrecognized — is that the work comes to exert considerable influence.
By both of these standards, E. F. Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful" is clearly a classic. Yet its virtues don't leap out at the reader all at once. Many of the chapter headings suggest an alarmingly dreary read lies ahead: "The Problem of Production," "The Proper Use of Land," "Social and Economic Problems Calling for the Development of Intermediate Technology." Hardly the sort of thing to stir the blood, one might think. And even the rather pedestrian first chapter gives little promise of what is to come.
Moreover, Schumacher's statement of his views is anything but systematic and orderly. One can nowhere find a mission statement. His style is anecdotal and friendly, and the underlying rigor of his thought is only made apparent by the simple and modest grace with which he states his views.
Yet, make no mistake, this is stuff to stir the blood. The underlying reason is quite surprising: Schumacher never forgets for a moment the connections among human values, human labor, and economics. Because of this, he hits the nail squarely and devastatingly on the head over and over and over again, and in the process makes one painfully aware that the conventional "economics" that one constantly hears from the corporate and business press is nothing less than distilled malignancy. It is also because of this that Schumacher can constantly be found making statements that are surprising, and even shocking, coming from an economist. No working person can fail to recognize the importance of what he has to say, because everything that he says touches, in the most immediate and illuminating way possible, upon the worklife of every person who works. To read Schumacher is, quite simply, to understand what economics truly means for human beings, which is to say: the real purpose of work, the real meaning of wealth (and how even the poorest country can work to attain it), and the real nature of economic justice.
This book is one of the very few that can rightly be regarded as providing a foundation for a distinctively Progressive or Green economics. Why? Again, because what distinguishes Progressive economics from corporatist economics is the insistence that people, and human values, matter. What we would therefore expect from a Progressive economist is precisely what Schumacher delivers: an economics that also insists that people, and human values, matter — and not as an afterthought, or as a secondary consideration, but centrally.
If you never dreamed that reading economics could be seductive and profoundly illuminating, if you never thought you'd put a book like this down wishing the author had written twice as much, then you're in for a very pleasant surprise.
Some representative quotations from "Small is Beautiful"
As is well-documented in several publications cited elsewhere on this site, large corporations are effectively the power behind that power, aided by the collusion of the mass media, the components of which are themselves organized into immensely wealthy, powerful, and self-interested transnational corporate news and entertainment cartels.
Wherever there is power, there is necessarily also responsibility; and where there is great power there is great responsibility. So if problems exist in our world or in American society, we have some reason, a priori, to suspect that large American-based corporations and banks might be involved in some way.
And so they are.
In ways that are obvious, and in other ways that are not so obvious.
Consider the case made by Ellen Brown in her intensely interesting, informative, and readable book "Web of Debt," reviewed next.
Diagnosing the Disease
Web of Debt
Ellen Hodgson Brown
Ellen Brown has done the United States (and the rest of the world, too) an enormous service in drawing attention to a large body of information concerning the Federal Reserving system of banking, a system that has had nothing but pernicious effects since its establishment, in 1913. This is the starting place for anyone wanting to "occupy Wall Street," or even understand how it is that the American economy has gotten to be the enormous, toxic mess we currently confront.
For the full review, go here.
Global
Problems and the Culture of Capitalism
by Richard Robbins
Anyone who has read Richard Korten's powerful, even gripping "When Corporations Rule the World" will find much to fascinate in Robbins' book. Where Korten is occupied mainly with making out the case against globalization—and an extremely compelling case it is—Robbins focuses upon supplying the historical context of the rise of corporatism, commercialization, and commodification so as to substantiate his case that most of the major problems confronting the world today can be traced in whole or in part to those causes.
Robbins is a professor of anthropology at SUNY, Plattsburgh, and his book was an outgrowth of the need for a textbook to teach a course in major global issues. This accounts for the academic feel of the book, as it has indeed been used as a text. But for a case this damning, an academic approach is mandatory if it is to be persuasive—at least insofar as such a case must be carefully documented, well grounded in empirical fact, and even-handed.
As Robbins' book is, for the most part. Among other things, he is careful throughout to give credit where credit is due to both capitalism and nationalism.
GPCC is organized into three parts:
Part I: The Consumer, the Laborer, the Capitalist, and the Nation-State in the Society of Perpetual Growth,
Part II: The Global Impact of the Culture of Capitalism,
and
Part III: Resistance and Rebellion.
Part I provides the greatest part of the historical context mentioned above. In many ways, this is the most fascinating part of the book, because the origins of much that comprises the modern world are virtually never chronicled. What are the origins of the department store? Robbins fill us in. Who developed the modern image of Santa Claus, and why? What are the origins of the corporation, and how and why has society lost control of this institution? What are the Bretton Woods institutions that are so quickly ossifying as instruments of global corporate rule? This, and much, much more in the way of background is filled in here. The upshot of it all is that there is virtually no aspect of contemporary life that hasn't been shaped by commercial motives and institutions. Ours is truly a corporate society, which is another way of saying that ours is truly a corrupted society.
Part II goes on to investigate global problems against this historical background. Robbins examines population growth, hunger, poverty, economic underdevelopment, the environment, unsustainable and unhealthy patterns of consumption, disease, and the destruction of native peoples. Corporations and corporate capitalist states are centrally implicated in every issue.
In Part III Robbins investigates the origins of social unrest, and portrays unrest as the result of economic exploitation by "developed" countries of the "undeveloped" countries, and, within countries, as the result of the exploitation of the poor by the rich. While much of the substance of this part of the book will likely be unknown to the average reader, the general thesis may be familiar, so that for those already convinced this makes for somewhat slower reading than the other two parts.
Perhaps the weakest aspect of Robbins' book is that defunct item of ideological baggage known as cultural relativism, found all too often among anthropologists. That is, an implicit assumption of GPCC at least sometimes seems to be that there are no more or less advanced cultures. Unfortunately, the manifest falseness of this view occasionally lurches into the foreground in an unconvincing way, and conflicts with Robbins' own reformist intentions. Robbins might also have given more consideration to causes outside of those he focuses on. While he makes his case, the degree to which the problems of the world can be attributed to corporate capitalism varies. Nevertheless, GPCC easily remains one of the most important, persuasive, and enlightening books to appear in the last five years.
Some Representative Quotations from Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism
The Divine Right of Capital
Marjorie Kelly
As a founder of the magazine "Business Ethics," Marjorie Kelly found herself wondering why the movement to increase corporate social responsibility had not only gone nowhere, but was everywhere in retreat. The conclusion that she eventually reached is that superficial, voluntary reform fails because it never addresses the root cause of the problem of corporate social irresponsibility. The case that she makes in her book "The Divine Right of Capital" is that the root cause is an essentially feudal attitude of entitlement to profit, which is institutionalized in the imperative of the corporation to maximize "shareholder return." It is this most fundamental of all corporate requirements that drives corporations to short term, destructive practices; and, as the most fundamental and pervasive of American institutions, it is this maxim that in turn remorselessly drives American society into the ground. Every other consideration is simply pushed aside in the mindless stampede for ever greater returns.
The "divine right" that the title of the book alludes to is the right medieval kings were supposed to have (and presidents like Bush still seem to think they have). The idea was that the king was somehow granted his authority by God, and was therefore beyond reproach by anyone (does this still sound familiar?). The reason she draws this parallel is that this notion is, incredibly, still with us — in the form of the divine rights of shareholders to profit. At first glance this claim sounds outlandish, but Kelly digs deeply into the history books and makes her case stick.
If you've always thought something was desperately and insidiously wrong with corporate capitalism, but couldn't quite put your finger on just what makes it so completely awful, then "The Divine Right of Capital" will read like the Rosetta stone must have read to archaeologists. It is beyond doubt the most comprehensively damning indictment of corporate capitalism ever written by anyone. Page after page after page is filled with dazzling insights, all organized and presented as clearly, compellingly, and enlighteningly as humanly possible. It would be very difficult indeed to overstate just how good this book really is, or to overestimate its importance. Indeed, it is a mandatory read for anyone even slightly interested in economic issues.
Having described the book in this way, though, is a little misleading. One might anticipate page after page of axe-grinding polemic. Not so: it's just not that kind of book. The point of unearthing the feudal roots of corporatism is to help us understand why corporatism is morally wrong, root and branch. So very wrong that it is, in fact, beyond defense and beyond hope of redemption in its current form. If all this sounds a little improbable, or a little overstated, then I suggest you have a look and see what you think for yourself.
All of this is not to say that capitalism, in a drastically modified form, isn't defensible. But the reforms will have to be far reaching indeed to confer moral legitimacy on the corporation as a social institution. (For an example of the right sort of reforms, see our discussion of Mondragon capitalism below.)
Some representative quotations from The Divine Right of Capital
Economics
as If the Earth Really Mattered
by
Susan Meeker-Lowry
I mentioned Meeker-Lowry's book in the economics essay, and as it was also a primary source for much of the information that follows it well merits at least a brief review of its own.
Meeker-Lowry was a resident of Vermont, where she homsteaded for almost a decade. She married a writer, Peter Lowry, who, together with his father, established a newsletter for socially conscious investors called "Good Money." A year later, in 1984, she founded her own publication, "Catalyst." The material she developed there culminated in her book of 1988.
Though one can read it straight through, as I did, this volume is primarily a rich compendium of resources for economic reforms. Interestingly, and encouragingly, the vast majority of the resources cited in EERM are still active and are still fighting the good fight.
Apart from the incredible multitude of good ideas this book contains, perhaps the most interesting thing about it is the way that it illustrates how someone without special academic preparation can undertake the kind of practical tasks most professional economists, often tied to corporate apron strings, seem to lack the interest, motivation, or conscience to tackle.
Anyone looking for practical ways to change the economy, and through the economy change the world, should consult this book.
Some
Representative Quotations from Economics as if the Earth Really Mattered
For those who believe, as we do, that globalization is an unmitigated catastrophe that threatens the complete eclipse of civil society and, with it, democracy itself, the most urgent question is this: what is to be done?
The three authors of this volume have undertaken to write a kind of primer that provides a fairly comprehensive survey of answers to this question. However, they don't stop there. Two other problems also threaten the fabric of community, and democracy, today. The first of these is the excessive mobility of capital, which results in a competitive race to the bottom among states and cities for jobs and tax revenues and also, of course, the doling out of bountiful largesse for the ultrawealthy at taxpayer expense that has become known as "corporate welfare". The third is suburban sprawl, which greatly benefits real estate robber barons, but which hollows out the cities they surround, and which also causes other, less intuitive problems.
This is a large, and daunting, turf for the authors to have staked out, but stake it out they have; and the result is an immensely hopeful and inspirational set of concrete solutions, a majority of which the reader will probably never have heard a whisper about in the corporate media. Nevertheless, a surprising number of these solutions have already been tried — and in many cases have already succeeded. Little or nothing here is utopian, though some of these options fly directly in the face of conventional—which is to say corporate—"wisdom." Most of the conceptual heavy lifting for repairing America (and the rest of the world) is all done here. What remains now is for far more Americans to become aware of these remedies and to provide political support and will for them.
MPC is divided into four parts:
1: The Triple Threat to Community and Democracy
2: Place-Based Policy Alternatives
3: Place-Based Economic Structures, and
4: The Global Context
The first chapter is diagnostic: what, the authors ask, is destroying American society? They focus, as we noted above, on three factors: globalization, corporate exploitation of the community, and urban sprawl. Particularly valuable here is the analysis provided of the many, many hidden costs of globalization.
In part 2, the authors look at what federal and state governments have done to try to stabilize employment, hold corporations accountable for providing the jobs they promise in exchange for largesse, reduce destructive competition between states for business relocation, and provide a livable wage. In perhaps the most surprising and interesting chapter of the book, they have a look at cases where government has run (highly successful) enterprises for a profit. The central idea here is that government-run companies can not only turn a profit for their communities, they also aren't going to uproot and go offshore. In another exciting chapter, the authors consider what can be done to develop local economic "greenhouses" in which capital circulates and recirculates within the community.
In part 3, perhaps the most exciting and rewarding part of all, employee ownership of companies is examined at length, together with revolutionary institutions that can help grow ownership of this kind.
Finally, in part 4, the authors offer a withering critique of globalization; unfortunately, in our view, the solutions they offer here that address globalization directly tend to be a little timid and disappointing. However, it must be acknowledged that the problems in this arena are exceptionally complex and difficult, and there is at least something to be said for their recommendations. It is worth emphasizing that the problems of globalization cannot be resolved if globalizing insitutions and policies continue to abrogate local democratic control in favor of global control by unelected multinational bureaucrats operating in secret conclaves. This is an extremely alarming and hyperdestructive trend that will inevitably lead to unprecedented human misery and the outright collapse of democracy if nothing is done.
Note: a more recent (2005), and in many ways more systematic statement of Alperovitz' views may be found in his "America Beyond Capitalism", which we can also strongly recommend.
Some representative quotations from Making a Place for Community
Getting the Big Picture Right
Mindful Economics : Understanding American Capitalism, Its Consequences and Alternatives
by Joel Magnuson
Most of what is written about economics is written from the perspective of the million or so individuals who most benefit from a corporate economics. It is rather shocking, then, that so little is written from the perspective of the billions whom this system damages every single day, or from the perspective of the planet it is destroying at an acclerating pace.
By contrast, "Mindful Economics" is squarely in the small but growing tradition of books concerning economics which place values at the very center of economic thought.
Billions of human beings should cheer — as would a living ecology itself, if only it could.
Among the canon of books concerning values-centered economics, the unrivalled — and unprecedented — power of Magnuson's book derives from the clarity, comprehensiveness, and accuracy of its vision. Elsewhere at this site we urge that attempts at reform be systematic. This is difficult, because being systematic means that one must have an understanding of what is most fundamentally wrong; an understanding of why it is wrong; and an understanding of what reforms would most effectively address the root cause of the problems.
To be sure, the authors of the other books reviewed here can all be said to have some understanding of this; but Magnuson has, by far, the firmest grasp of what systematic reform demands, and he does by far the best job of organizing his content around that understanding.
It can be particularly difficult to effect reforms if one hasn't first understood clearly how all the pieces of a given system work together; and the American economy is nothing if not a system. But Magnuson can here be found doing the right thing once again, carefully mitering together an overview of virtually all of the key elements of the American economy in terms anyone can understand. (Indeed, it would be hard to think of another book that would provide a better introduction to economics itself.)
The core of "ME" is, perhaps, found in Chapter 9, "The Growth Imperative of Capitalism: Prosperity or Poverty", where he speaks most directly to the achilles heel of corporate capitalism: the fundamentally incompatible demand for endless, and indeed accelerating growth in a world of finite resources, dismaying levels of pollution, and a ballooning population. This is also the most sobering chapter, because Magnuson is undoubtedly correct: corporate capitalism must implode, and it will, whether anyone likes it or not.
The prescriptions offered by "ME" turn largely on the integration of work and the benefits derived from it. Once again, Magnuson is undoubtedly correct, and once again this is a sobering insight, as so very much would have to change, and therefore must change, in order for such an integration to come about.
Because of the comprehensiveness of "Mindful Economics", if you only have time to read one of the recommendations here, or want to know where best to begin, this is your book.
Some representative quotations from Mindful Economics.
The Mondragon Solution
Perhaps the single most important economic reform ever conceived can't be found in Meeker, and is only discussed in passing in Making a Place for Community. On our analysis, the basic economic problem today doesn't lie with capitalism per se, but rather with corporate capitalism, which is so structured as to inevitably result in social mahem. As Robert Gilman has remarked:
We often use the word "capitalism" very loosely to refer to some vague notion of "our system", but its essential basis is the idea that labor should be rented while those who have ownership rights to the equipment (capital) should take the risks and rewards and control the decision making. [Emphasis added.]
But as he points out, this is a complete inversion of what capitalism ought to be, both from the standpoint of productivity and justice. The remarkable system known as the Mondragon cooperative, which has experienced enormous successes, restructures capitalism in a much more practical way. Gilman:
The Mondragón cooperatives are based on the much more sensible principle that capital should be rented and labor should have risks, rewards, and control. [Emphasis added.]
And, as he concludes:
it is more efficient as a means of production, it offers more flexibility to the society, it offers better working conditions, and it leads to more socially responsible corporate decision-making. It is a major step in the direction of true participatory economic democracy. Both corporate-capitalism and Soviet communism assume that when it comes to economics, people can't (or shouldn't) run their own lives. The important decisions must be made either by an industrial/financial elite or by government bureaucrats. Mondragón, by its very existence, proclaims all that to be nonsense.
All in all, the Mondragon cooperative may be the single most important economic concept ever advanced. Find out more about it at these links:
http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC02/Gilman2.htm
http://www.sfworlds.com/linkworld/mondragon.html
Consumer boycotts are coordinated efforts aimed at reducing or eliminating the purchasing of products produced by socially irresponsible corporations. Boycotts of this nature can be extremely powerful tools when those who undertake the boycott:
The basic object is simple: do everything possible to draw attention to the misdeeds of the corporation in question, write the company, and make a personal commitment not to purchase its products.
Good web resources for consumer boycotts include the following:
http://www.globalexchange.org/economy/
http://www.earthrights.org/takeaction.shtml (this site also provides good background on boycotts)
http://www.webcom.com/hrin/consumer.html
http://www.eco-portal.com/Sustainability/What_You_Can_Do/Consumer_Boycotts/welcome.asp
As for the most important boycott currently underway, see the following URL:
http://www.boycottbush.net/ (critically important)
A resource for organizing a boycott can be found here:
http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/boycotts/index.cfm
Finally, Corporate Accountability International (formerly INFACT) coordinated a boycott of the Nestle corporation for its promotion of inadequate infant formula over breast milk, and remains active in new campaigns. See:
http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/cms/index.cfm?group_id=1000
In a less ambitious, and less effective, form of Socially Responsible Consuming (SRC) the consumer simply doesn't buy the products of any company he or she regards as socially irresponsible. For example, we haven't bought anything from Post for years because the parent company is Philip Morris, the tobacco giant; and we haven't bought anything from McDonald's for decades because of their intensive lobbying against an adequate minimum wage. However, this form of SRC is less effective because, although the targeted company is deprived of some revenue, it isn't made aware of the reasons why, and also because it's harder to have any real impact going it alone.
One of the best resources for socially responsible consuming can be found at the Co-op America site: http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/rs/
Corporations, such as banks, can sometimes be found lending money in oppressive countries, while many others rush in to exploit cheap resources or inexpensive labor, seek to expand in new "markets", or pressure congress to "liberalize" trade. The aim of divestment campaigns is to pressure corporations to stop doing business in disreputable countries. Since the tactics used to bring about divestment are essentially the same as those of consumer boycotts, divestment is really just another form of socially responsible consuming with a somewhat different objective. The best-known divestment effort to date was that directed at ending apartheid in South Africa.
The most grievous offenders in the world today are probably those corporations doing business in Myanmar (Burma), an ultra-oppressive police state easily as bad as, say, North Korea (and which might well have been included in Bush's "Axis of Evil" except for the fact that American companies are doing business there). The effort to de-fund the World Bank might also be regarded as a divestment initiative.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR—see below for link) have done good work in the divestment arena.
In theory at least, the shareholders of a corporation, as its owners, have the right to elect representatives to direct the corporation and approve of any significant corporate actions such as mergers. On behalf of the shareholders, the board of directors is supposed to hire and fire corporate officers such as the CEO. In the abstract, corporate law guarantees that there be a kind of shareholder democracy.
In reality, large corporations are run by CEOs who choose the board of directors, and every effort has been made to minimize the impact of shareholder democracy via such practices as proxy voting. (Since any corporation may obtain its charter there, the state of Delaware owns much of the responsibility for stripping civil society and shareholders of their ability to hold corporations accountable, courtesy of, for example, its atrocious General Corporation Law. Delaware itself is very nearly a wholly owned subsidiary of the DuPont corporation—see Nader's "Introduction to the Company State", also in The Ralph Nader Reader.) Nevertheless, some vestigial democratic features remain, among which is the shareholder initiative.
Investors with $1,000 worth of stock, who have held it for at least eighteen months, are entitled to bring forward shareholder resolutions to propose changes in corporate practices. (For good background on this, see Nader's essay "Who Rules the Giant Corporation?", again in The Ralph Nader Reader.)
As Meeker-Lowry remarks, bringing forward such resolutions "is more than a right, it is a responsibility. As an owner, one is responsible for the ethical successes and failings of a comany as well as for its financial gains or losses."
Among the most successful organizations pressing shareholder initiatives is the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). They have a great deal of financial clout and are doing extremely good work.
Socially responsible investing can trace its roots to the early 70s, when a group of concerned Methodists established the Pax World Fund in response to the Vietnam war. The idea was that those who wished to invest money in the market would be able to do so without investing in companies that manufactured weapons used in the war. Then, in 1972, the Dreyfus Third Century Fund began investing in companies with "best-of-industry" records. Since then, SRI has exploded.
In practice SRI funds apply various "screens" to companies, excluding those with a history of offending practices, such as bad labor relations or environmental records. It falls to the investor to decide which of these screens to apply, and therefore which fund to choose.
One might think that SRI would result in a lower rate of return for its investors. That hasn't proven to be true. One can truly do good while doing well.
As Meeker-Lowry remarks: "What we do with our money can reflect who we are and what we believe in, and that responsibility does not end at the point of transaction. As stockholders in a corporation, we are owners. A piece of that company belongs to us!
"In the same way that we buy clothes or groceries on the basis of both price and personal taste, it only makes sense that we choose our investments with attention to who we are. If one is active in a local peace group, why hold stock in General Electric? If one belongs to a labor union (or manages a union's pension fund), why hold stock in a company that closes plants in the United States for cheaper labor outside of the country? If one supports the Sierra Club or the conservation movement, why benefit finanacially from a company involved in offshore oil drilling, producing toxic chemicals, or destroying rain forests?"
Why, indeed?
A good place to begin with socially responsible investing is at the Social Investment Forum website, located here: http://www.socialinvest.org/areas/sriguide/
One argument that Korten makes in "When Corporations Rule the World" is that municipalism—the local control of a local economy—could do much to restore the accountability of corporations to their communities, and reduce the often disastrous impact of chains such as Wal-Mart, which in smaller cities invariably drive local companies out of business, thereby contributing to the creation of a dreary global monoculture. To this Meeker-Lowry adds the point that municipalism would also empower consumers and help increase the resistance of local economies to global economic swings. And Co-op America (see their link in the Additional Web Resources section at the bottom of the frame) adds that when goods are produced locally it can greatly reduce the energy demands of long distance transport.
Another interesting point raised indirectly in EERM is that while goods may be sold globally, resources are extracted locally, with all of the pollution that entails, and garbage is usually deposited locally as well. This can leave the local community at the wrong ends of the production cycle. When, on top of this, the profits go to shareholders who reside elsewhere, this hemmorhages money out of the local economy.
Solutions to this situation include:
A resource for establishing housing cooperatives is the Institute for Community Economics (ICE), linked here: http://www.iceclt.org/ ICE has specialized in working with underserved communities, but the principles it operates under could be applied anywhere.
The Industrial Cooperative Association (ICA) provides information and support to individuals wishing to start business cooperatives (which implement workplace democracy) and worker owned businesses: http://www.ica-group.org/ Another good resource is the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO): http://www.nceo.org/ (this site breaks out of this frame, so to return here you'll need to press the "Back" button in your browser).
The ecumenical community has pioneered the community development credit union (CDCU). Once again, the focus has been on underserved communities, but the principles could be applied anywhere. For a resource, see: http://www.natfed.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=1
Barter and community currency systems have been formalized as LETS economies, beginning in Canada, and have proven so successful that they've spread worldwide. The idea is extremely powerful, and very exciting. An excellent resource may be found at: http://www.transaction.net And for the basic facts, see: http://www.gmlets.u-net.com/go/cc99/meme.htm
There are four different reform-related aspects of socially responsible employment.
First, one might consider withholding labor from socially irresponsible corporations. No corporation can function without employees; and working for unscrupulous companies can leave one in the same sort of position as the employees of Enron: misled, exploited, and abused.
Second, there are a number of careers which of themselves serve to make the world a better place to live. Some of these are discussed in the lifestyles essay elsewhere on this site.
Third, one might consider starting an employee-owned business or business cooperative. For a resource, see the following link : http://www.veoc.org/relatedlinks.shtml#ownership
Fourth, we strongly commend the concept of one to two years of mandatory national service. This would have several advantages:
Like the military, but for more socially constructive purposes, it could serve as a national jobs program, providing work experience, and work for the unemployed.
It could serve to confront the more affluent with the human reality of the obstacles and tribulations faced by the less affluent, and break down socioeconomic barriers and classism. It could also serve to confront citizens more directly with the many problems faced by society.
It could be combined with some aspect of direct democracy, in that some portion of that time could be spent in being educated in the issues confronting the nation and the world, and in serving in the government in one capacity or another.
FInally, national service could provide an enormous pool of manpower to address the nation's most serious problems.
"So much of what we do for and to ourselves is done through the large corporate institution directly and indirectly acting on other derivative institutions. The challenge is how to bring corporate powers, privileges and de facto immunities into greater conformance with the public interest."
—Ralph
Nader
On the Corporate State and the Corporatizing of
America
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