Evolutionary Reconstruction

At some point, a society like the United States that already produces the equivalent of over $190,000 for every family of four must ask when enough is enough. As Juliet Schor has argued, one important step is to shift the economy to encourage less consumption and more leisure time.

Even former Presidential adviser James Gustave Speth has bluntly observed that for “the most part we have worked within this current system of political economy, but working within the system will not succeed in the end when what is needed is transformative change in the system itself.”

As a matter of cold logic, if some of the most important corporations are massively disruptive and have costly impact on the economy and the environment. Historic and experience suggests that regulation and anti-trust laws in important areas are likely to be largely subverted by these corporations then a public takeover becomes the only logical answer.

It is now time to explore "Evolutionary Reconstruction", that is the systemic institutional transformation of the political and economic systems.

Two primary tactics are needed to promote this "Evolutionary Reconstruction" one arm would be aimed at reforming existing large companies the primary thrust of which would be anti corporate personhood to limit extractive ownership, another at promoting alternatives such as worker owned, coop, and other generative ownership models.

External regulation can constrain corporations and capital markets to some extent, but without internal redesign, their primary goal of profit maximizing remains unchanged, seeking every opportunity to break free.

If the root social construct of government is sovereignty (who legitimately controls the state), the root social construct of an economy is property (who legitimately controls wealth creation). Another word for property is ownership.

While it is easy to think of ownership as a fact, it is more accurately a historically constituted design. The dominant form of ownership of our age serves the needs of capital markets by generating endlessly growing financial wealth. Yet because financial wealth is a claim against real wealth, a claim on future wages, housing values, or company profits, capital-centered ownership works by extraction of future wealth.

So by changing this ownership we fundamentally change the system and transform from extractive ownership (Monopoly Capital) to generative ownership (Social or Democratic Capital).

There are more kinds of generative ownership design than many people realize, particularly among cooperatives. In the U.S., more than 130 million Americans are members of a co-op or credit union. More Americans hold memberships in co-ops than hold stock in the stock market. Worldwide, cooperatives have close to a billion members. They employ more people than all multinational corporations combined. Among the 300 largest cooperative and mutually owned companies worldwide, total revenues amount to nearly $2 trillion. If these enterprises were a single nation, it would rank ninth on the list of the world’s largest economies.

This "Evolutionary Reconstruction" by reversing extractive to generative owner we can fundamentally change our economic and social environment to one that promotes humanity vs exploiting it.