New system possibility
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“The climate crisis is the world’s political economies at work. The oncoming climate calamity is the strongest argument for the transformation of America’s political economy. ”
Good reason to despair, yet grief was purged
by tracing how creation reigned supreme.
The pupa cracked, the butterfly emerged:
America, still emerging from its dream.
—Clive James
My previous essays have tried to describe some of the major challenges our country faces. We have, as Clive James notes, “good reason to despair.” But we know that is not an option.
Instead, many of us think the situation we face calls for transformative change. By that we mean major change in our existing political and economic systems. The goal is to imagine and then seek a new system of political economy that ensures the priority of people, place, and planet and leads to flourishing human and natural communities.
But how would this new system look and work? Often there is a lack of clarity about the actual shape of a transformed society. There’s comfort in staying with a generous dose of generality, and I, on occasion, have stayed there. But the first step is surely to have a good sense of the directions to pursue. So in this essay I will describe rather concretely what I mean by transformative change to a new system of political economy.
Different folks have different ideas about what transformative change would look like. There is transformation lite and transformation deep. At the lite end of the spectrum are welcomed changes that look a lot like traditional reforms but can contain the seeds of fundamental shifts. The ideas I will present here tend towards the deep change end of the spectrum. They are not as radical as some, but a portion of readers may think, indeed, he has gone off the deep end.
As I present this new system, I keep in mind this bit of wisdom from author Richard Flanagan: “What we cannot dream we can never do.” We do need dreams! But we have more than dreams now. We know a great deal about how to promote the changes I will describe. Pioneering initiatives are being pursued here and abroad. Moreover, there are mounting pressures moving us in these directions, including climate change.
Transitions
I believe system change in America can best be approached through a series of interacting, mutually reinforcing transitions. Such transformations—some aborning, some farther off, and all difficult but none impossible—would alter the current system’s key motivational structures. Note that they are transitions: progress can be made over time, and there are partway houses.
The growth transition. GDP—think “grossly distorted picture”—is recognized as a poor guide, ignored in favor of measuring progress toward democratically determined priorities and social and environmental wellbeing.
The corporate transition. Profit becomes a relatively minor motivation for businesses. Producing social and environmental wellbeing comes first. Economic democracy is everywhere and takes many forms: worker ownership, co-ops, community and public ownership, credit unions, public-private and for-profit, not-for-profit hybrids. For big corporations, stakeholder boards are mandated as are high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
The market transition. As a governing force in economic life, the market is now powerfully complemented by cooperation and by planning. Tight market regulation keeps prices honest and wages fair.
Transition in investment and finance. Investment for high financial returns is largely replaced by investment for high social and environmental returns. Public and community banking predominates over private. Main Street tops Wall Street.
The social transition. Powerful social justice measures—tax fairness, a job guarantee, fully adequate minimum wage and unemployment compensation, strong unions, equal pay for equal work, good child care and paid leave, paid opportunities in social and environmental services—ensure fundamental fairness and genuine equal opportunity, defeating both economic deprivation and gross inequality.
The lifestyle and culture transition. Vain attempts to satisfy non-material needs with material possessions give way to new lifestyles based on the recognition that other people are our main source of happiness. Nature is seen not as ours to exploit but as a communion of subjects in which we are integral. (For a full description of the all-important transition in cultural values, see my Essay from the Edge No. 5.)
The communities transition. Runaway enterprise and throwaway communities are replaced by vital communities that prize human solidarity, local control, and rootedness. Joy in diversity supplants racial and religious discrimination and intolerance.
The democracy transition. Creeping corporatocracy and plutocracy are rolled back as political reforms bring true popular sovereignty and empowerment of marginalized groups—actual government of, by, and for the people. Governing is focused where it is most effective—local, state, national, or international—with decision-making on issues guided to the most decentralized level feasible.
These transitions provide the truest escape from the currently failing system and the foundation for an attractive next system. (Note that transitions about international and defense affairs, though omitted here, must be added.)
American dreamscape
Here is a dreamscape of an America made possible by these transitions. Down these paths, we can envision interesting aspects of life in this new setting.
For starters, much of economic and social life is rooted in our communities and surrounding regions. Production of food and much more is local and regional. Enterprises are mostly locally owned and committed to the long-term wellbeing of employees (their neighbors) and the viability of their communities (their towns).
Worker and community ownership are prominent, often taking the form of co-ops and credit unions. Community Wealth Building, where communities have ownership and control of their assets, is commonplace. Cooperation moderates competition, and companies stress wellbeing and not profit. Indeed, the profit motive has faded into the background.
Production systems are designed to mimic biological ones, with waste streams eliminated or becoming a useful input elsewhere. The provision of services replaces the purchase of many goods, and sharing, collaborative consumption, and community ownership are commonplace. Few people own things they can borrow or rent. Products are more durable and are easy to repair, with components that can be reused or recycled.
Growth in GDP is not seen as a priority, and GDP is viewed as a misleading measure of wellbeing and progress. Instead, new indicators of national and community wellbeing—including measures of social and natural capital—are closely watched.
Socially, formal work hours have been cut back and paid leaves added, freeing up time for family, friends, hobbies, continuing education, skills development, caregiving, volunteering, sports, outdoor recreation, and participating in the arts. Life is less frenetic. Mindfulness and living simply carry the day.
Because large inequalities are at the root of so many social and environmental problems, measures have been implemented to ensure much greater equality not only of opportunity but also of outcomes. Because life is simpler and less grasping and there is less advertising and people are not so status conscious, a fairer sharing of economic resources is possible.
The overlapping webs of encounter and participation that were once hallmarks of America, a nation of joiners, have been rebuilt. Trust in each other is high. Community bonds are strong; civic associations and community service groups plentiful; support for teachers and caregivers high. Personal security, tolerance of difference, and empathy predominate.
Special attention is given to children and young people. Their education and receipt of loving care, shelter, good nutrition and health care, and an environment free of pollutants and violence are the measures of how well society is doing.
Consumerism is supplanted by the search for abundance in things that truly bring happiness and joy—family, friends, the natural world, meaningful work. Communities enjoy a strong rebirth of needed skills and trades, crafts, and self-provisioning. Conspicuous consumption is considered vulgar and has been replaced by new investment in natural amenities, education, and community wealth.
Voting rights everywhere are secure, and almost everyone votes, but voting is considered only part of popular democracy. Local governance stresses participatory, direct, and deliberative democracy. At the national level, a host of pro-democracy reforms are in place. Citizens are seized with the responsibility to manage and extend the commons—the valuable assets that belong to everyone—through community land trusts, public spaces, and more.
Despite the many ways life will be more local, and in defiance of the resulting temptation to parochialism, Americans feel a sense of citizenship at larger levels of social and political organization, including at the global level where there is a new sense of global citizenship and a strong global citizens movement.
There is a palpable sense that all economic and social activity is nested in the natural world and dependent on it. Zero discharge of pollutants, toxics, and greenhouse gases is the norm. Renewable energy is used everywhere, with maximum efficiency. Green chemistry has replaced the use of toxic solvents and hazardous substances. Organic farming has eliminated pesticide and herbicide use. Biophilic design has brought nature into our buildings and communities.
Businesses are forced to pay for their “external” environmental damages, like climate change impacts, as some economists have long preached. Schools stress environmental education and pursue “no child left inside” programs. Ecosystem restoration, especially repairing the damages caused by climate change, is a main focus of community action. Major efforts are made to return carbon to soils and forests.
As humorist Dave Barry often exclaimed, “I’m not making this up!” Around our country there is actual evidence of all these things, some in place and some still only as proposals for new policies. They do not predominate, not yet the norm, but they are there. They provide guideposts showing the way. And there is a world out there of nonprofit groups and coalitions working for these changes and ready to help. The path, a poet said, is made by walking.
Coda: The complication
I so wish I could end here with this delightfully positive story. But it would not be honest to fail to mention the great complication looming over this entire essay. There is a problem in the path of any positive future—the climate problem. Possibilities like the ones just sketched could be severely limited by the slow pace of climate action here and abroad. The reality of global warming and climate change is already hard upon us, and it will worsen. My guess is that the world will soon be consumed with the consequences of climate change. How America and the world address the climate issue will be a powerful determinant of what future is possible.
To that end, we must proceed with urgency to do what is so clearly needed: a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions in all the major countries. But along with emissions reduction and adaptation to climate impacts, we must also pursue the system changes needed to correct the fundamental flaws that have delivered the climate crisis to our doorstep.
We should not see climate as a separate problem. The climate crisis is the world’s political economies at work. The oncoming climate calamity is the strongest argument for transformation of America’s political economy. Elsewhere, I have argued that the system changes advocated in the essay—the transitions—are what we need to cope with climate change over time. My hope is that the US and other countries will see the wisdom of fusing measures for transformative change with measures to address climate threats. The two should go forward hand in hand.
Gus Speth is a Distinguished Next System Fellow at The Democracy Collaborative and the editor of The New Systems Reader. He has worked as a key environmental movement leader and has authored several books.
