“Society long ago democratized government, but we have never democratized the economy.”<\/em><\/p>\n Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard (2019: xiii): The Making of a Democratic Economy. Building Prosperity for the Many, Not Just the Few.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Unless the economy is democratized, today\u2019s extractive economy<\/u> will persist.<\/strong> According to Kelly and Howard (ibid),\u00a0 globalization and financializaton are the hallmarks of this extractive economy:<\/p>\n “Benefits are said to trickle down, when actually the system extracts wealth up from communities and sets it spinning in <\/em>[the world of] speculative trading.” <\/em>(ibid: 22-23, emphasize and text in brackets added)<\/p>\n “Ours is an economy of, by, and for the 1%<\/em>\u2019.. In today\u2019s ownership design, corporations are <\/em>short-term in orientation, require endless growth, measure success by profit and share price, externalize costs onto the environment and, too often, are amoral in decision-making.”<\/em><\/p>\n (ibid: 5, 23-24 )<\/span><\/p>\n Given today\u2019s problems of inequality, climate change and environmental destruction, the above traits\u00a0points to nothing less than a system failure<\/u><\/strong>:<\/p>\n “[The elephant in the room is fiduciary duty (board members duty or loyalty to shareholders)] we haven’t fully confronted the fact that corporations believe they have a fiduciary duty to systematically suppress labor and labor income\u2014and weaken environmental regulation\u2014in order to increase profit for wealthy shareholders.” <\/em><\/p>\n (ibid:6)<\/span><\/p>\n Accordingly, there is a need for systems change<\/strong>. For Kelly and Howard, democracy needs to move inside the economy:<\/u> “[It is not enough to put] such values as sustainability or fairness on the outside of the system through regulation<\/strong> and social safety nets. These values need to be in the DNA.” <\/em>(ibid:8)<\/p>\n Therefore, the \u2018value proposition\u2019 of a democratic economy <\/strong>(hence also the ideal value proposition of enterprises) should conform to \u2018democratic economy designs\u2019:<\/p>\n To appreciate these principles of \u2018an economy for the 99%\u2019, some terms needs unpacking before summarizing the principles themselves:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The below refers related system failures as shown in the course outline on Cooperative Social Entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n Course on Cooperative Social Entrepreneurship; cutout from Course overview, Part 1<\/p>\n Climate Change<\/td>\n Dysfunctional Climate Strategies & Measurements System. How the Illogical System for Global Trade exaggerate Climate Change<\/p>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Loss of Nature & Livelihood<\/p>\n <\/td>\n Nature & Biodiversity Loss, Mass Wildlife Extinction, Pollution & Enclosure<\/p>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Inequality<\/td>\n Piketty: Returns to capital remain consistently higher than to labor<\/p>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Money System Failures<\/td>\n Corporate Power & Abuse<\/p>\n <\/td>\n Magnified by Corporate Personhood, Deregulation and Privatisation<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n Democracy Eroded<\/td>\n Wealth concentrated via banks & corporations corrupts the political system<\/td>\n ‘Free’-Trade Agreements; When corporations can sue governments<\/p>\n \n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Why do we need Economic Democracy? “Society long ago democratized government, but we have never democratized the economy.” Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard (2019: xiii): The Making of a Democratic Economy. Building Prosperity for the Many, Not Just the Few. Unless the economy is democratized, today\u2019s extractive economy will persist. According to Kelly and Howard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-154","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n 1970-2010: 145 banking crises. How the money system creates its own crises<\/td>\n Systematic redistribution of wealth through Interest & Compound Interest<\/td>\n The system\u2019s built-in tendency to disregard the future & sustainability<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n