Rise of the New Economy Movement
A growing number of theorists and activists are experimenting with new business models that go beyond profit
http://www.salon.com/2012/05/22/rise_of_the_new_economy_movement/
Many of the ideas outlined in the article I believe are right on target for developing long-term resolutions to many of our current economic issues (tellingly, this quote: “One recent calculation is that
400 individuals at the top now own more wealth than the bottom 160 million.”). While I am programmed (by personality as well as education) to maximize profit by charging exactly what the market will bear, I am also very cognizant of the fact that there are markets that should be managed for the greater good of the greatest number (utilities immediately leap to mind). I like the idea of true employee-owned companies (not the faux employee-owned companies seen so often, when a tiny group owns 60% or more of the voting stock and 90%+ of the rest of the employees own 10-20% (in aggregate) or less) where the company is managed by people responsible to the actual employees. Sure, they are not likely to be _as_ profitable as competitors, but as long as they _can_ operate profitably and can gainfully employ people (and are not being ripped off by executives taking million-dollar salaries), then that is a very good approach. Unions are not inherently evil (though I sometimes make such knee-jerk statements), they just tend to be managed ‘evilly’ by people who don’t give a damn about the members / employees.
I really like the idea of co-ops (tried to interest people in an aquacultural co-op, but I think it is too novel too soon for the average farmer (and, I believe at this time, has the potential to make a crap load of money, so I aim to snag my share before the excess profit is wrung out)), as long as the executives pay is kept reasonable (where reasonable, in my mind (and in this economic climate) is likely around $250K (inclusive of all benefits and deferred payments)). In co-ops any excess profit is returned to the owners, so as long as it is efficiently managed it provides the very best goods and services for the money.
Certainly some things are going to be more efficiently done/made in certain locations, so there should still be quite a bit of trade, but Enron-esque crap like deliberately causing blackouts in order to drive up prices would be largely impossible if instead there were neighboring co-ops providing, for example, energy (in the case of Enron). Another problem with hyper specialization is that local governance can be overwhelmed leading to destruction of the environment or hyper-aggressive short-term planning/decision making at the expense of the long-term health and welfare of the community. The rampant harvesting of old-growth forest is a perfect example. The local communities worked themselves right out of business and the corporate raiders that grew fat from the unsustainable harvest just wandered to find another body to suck dry. If less over-all efficient methods of doing things (such as local small utilities owned by the communities, smaller, locally owned and operated manufacturing, etc.) are contemplated for basal-level subsistence (meaning only ‘luxuries’ are imported) then communities are much less likely to be held hostage by remote corporate interests. The whole idea of economies of scale only really scale efficiently if there is lots of competition and plenty of ready suppliers if an Eron-like operator starts to game the system. Capitalism (contrary to the impression that Wall Street likes to provide) breaks down when there is a lack of competition. Capitalism depends on competition on a level playing field with very low levels of information asymmetry. What we have today is far from that ideal and I can absolutely guarantee to you that if we had highly competitive markets with high degrees of information availability and awareness that no executive would get $100 million salaries because the profit margins simply wouldn’t allow it. Our ‘capitalism’ today is a skewed representation that is used like a red cape to wave in front of the right-wing ignorant masses to keep them confused and misdirected.
Oligarchy != capitalism!
If the GOP right-wing nut jobs weren’t so damn stupid (of course, the left-wing nut jobs are just as stupid, they just have different things to be stupid about (of course the middle-ground is made up of ignorant sheeple as well)) they would be all over this Occupy Wall Street thing. Oligarch is only good for the tiny fraction of the population that inhabit that space and guess what, Tea Partiers? Except for lottery-odds chances of success, it is a club you can only be born into. No amount of hard work (and no amount of tax breaks (and no amount of gun carrying)) will let you into that rarefied realm. My main objection to the left-wing nut jobs is that they want to legislate this ‘socialism’ and ram it down the throats of people via a bloated government program. These sorts of co-op type arrangements don’t need any damn regulation if the free market of a well-oiled capitalist machine is in place. In principle we don’t even need the government to break the backs of the oligarchy-owned monopolies, just enough regulation to keep the oligarchy from prohibiting us from implementing such. Fortunately, since the oligarchy is largely heredity, the members are, on average, dumber (on average) than the sheeple that populate the rest of the nation. As such, were we able to convince the left and the right (and the middle) to cooperate and resist the oligarchy-imposed divisiveness, we could simply produce a parallel economy and basically fission off from the oligarchy and let them continue to play in their little playgrounds until they finally realize how badly screwed they are (and it would be too late then).
Of course, as my regular reader(s) are well aware, I hold out no hope whatsoever that the ignorant sheeple massed will ever get their heads out of their asses long enough to smell the roses. While theoretically possible for things to get better without needing to get much worse, I don’t see that as practical and expect things to get far worse before there is any chance things will get better.
