On July 18, 2013, chrystia Freeland of Reuters writes in The New York Times:
[Marx] was also profoundly mistaken about capitalism, which turns out to be the best prosperity-creating system humanity has come up with so far.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to evolve. The high-tech, globalized capitalism of the 21st century is very different from the postwar version of capitalism that performed so magnificently for the middle classes of the western world.
That’s why a lot of people, including many hard-driving capitalists, are trying to figure out how to retool the institutions of capitalism for our time. This week, the state of Delaware, which has made corporate governance its regional cuisine, approved a new form of incorporation, the B-corp, or benefit corporation. These are companies explicitly charged with a dual mission: to earn profits for shareholders, the traditional business goal, and also to pursue the social good in other ways, ranging from protecting employees to safeguarding the environment — even if these goals come at the cost of short-term financial gain.
was also profoundly mistaken about capitalism, which turns out to be the best prosperity-creating system humanity has come up with so far.
But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to evolve. The high-tech, globalized capitalism of the 21st century is very different from the postwar version of capitalism that performed so magnificently for the middle classes of the western world.
That’s why a lot of people, including many hard-driving capitalists, are trying to figure out how to retool the institutions of capitalism for our time. This week, the state of Delaware, which has made corporate governance its regional cuisine, approved a new form of incorporation, the B-corp, or benefit corporation. These are companies explicitly charged with a dual mission: to earn profits for shareholders, the traditional business goal, and also to pursue the social good in other ways, ranging from protecting employees to safeguarding the environment — even if these goals come at the cost of short-term financial gain.
“Part of the struggle is facing up to the hard facts,” he said. “The basic thing that underlies a B-corp is that you don’t have to maximize shareholder value. You are accepting the possibility of a lower return.”
That may have been common sense for the greatest generation. But for most of us today, that notion of voluntarily forgoing higher profits for the benefit of the wider community is, as Mr. Alexander put it, “counterintuitive.”
The B-corp structure is part of a wider movement to make that trade-off more natural. As Mr. Alexander said, “the issue is, do you want to conduct your investments in the way you wouldn’t conduct your life.”
This op-ed fails to address the further concentration of ownership of the productive capital assets of private sector businesses of all form created for the purpose of generating profitability for their owners.
Concentrated ownership of productive capital assets, which income inequality is fundamentally rooted in needs to be addressed as the solution and respect and upholds the principles of private property.
Until we, as a nation, understand that it is the lack of ownership of the means of production that is the basic economic problem for most Americans, we will constantly see an eroding of wages, the destruction of jobs, and increasing demand on the part of the people that the State do more and more for them. For the vast majority of Americans, their only source of income is wages, government welfare support or charity.
Support the Capital Homestead Act at http://www.cesj.org/homestead/index.htm and http://www.cesj.org/homestead/summary-cha.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/19/us/19iht-letter19.html?_r=2&
