David Korten has been writing excellent optimistic – and yet challenging and realistic – books on economic system reform for years. His most recent book, published in August, 2010, is the 2nd Edition of Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth. Chapter 13 of that book, “Seven Points of Intervention,” specifies specific strategies for bringing about system reform which is both life-affirming and biosphere-sustaining. At the end of this note is a link to a fuller writeup of his points of intervention.
He introduces his seven points with this call: Life or money: that is our choice. The current Wall Street system serves only money. Our task is to replace it with a New Economy system that serves life.
1. Living-Wealth Indicators
The Goal: Replace financial indicators with indicators of human- and natural-systems health as the basis for evaluating economic performance. We get what we measure, so let’s measure what we want.
2. Living-Wealth Money System
The Goal: Redesign the money system to direct the flow of money to productive Main Street businesses rather than to Wall Street speculators. Real resources follow the money, so design the financial system to put the money where it will produce the greatest living-wealth benefit.
3. Shared Prosperity
The Goal: Redistribute income and ownership to achieve a more equitable distribution of power and real wealth (food, shelter, clothing, work – productivity). We all enjoy greater health, happiness, security, and social solidarity when wealth is equitably shared.
4. Living Enterprises
The Goal: Redefine the purpose of the enterprise from making money to serving community needs, and favor enterprise forms that support this purpose.
5. Real Markets / Real Democracy
The Goal: Free both the market and democracy from corporate domination by breaking up concentrations of economic power, getting big money out of politics, making corporations pay their own way, and reserving Bill of Rights protections for people.
6. Local Living Economies
The Goal: Create a planetary system of coherent, self-reliant local economies that function as dynamic, life-nurturing sub-systems of their local ecosystems.
7. Global Rules
The Goal: Create a system of global rules and institutions that support living-wealth indicators and money systems, shared prosperity, living enterprises, real democracy, and local living economies.
The link to a more complete summary of the above seven points is here: Proposals for Change-D.Korten
