Part Two: If We Imagine It We Can Build It
Prioritize PEOPLE, the PLANET, and PROFIT, in that order!
The 3-Ps of a New Capitalist System
I have been called a “communist” on more than one occasion by people who have no idea what the term means. While I am obviously not a communist, I am very critical of the exploitative capitalist system that is currently ravaging both people and the planet in the name of profit.
In the last column, I outlined four transformations that are taking place over the next 25 years and their potential to alter the current economic system. Capitalism, as it is currently structured, primarily benefits the few at the expense of the many. It is a win-lose system. The 1% win, and the 99% lose.
There is no doubt that the capitalist system has created unimaginable wealth. The problem is that wealth is still unimaginable to the majority of people working within that economic framework. Very few people have access to even adequate amounts of income to sustain them and provide dignity and security.
Roughly one-third of American families try to exist with under $50,000 income annually. And if you add another $25,000 of income, then 50% of Americans are trying to make a living on barely enough to keep food on their tables.
This is by design…losing in this economy is not a choice, it is rigged by those who benefit from the rigging. Those who rig the system have one value: profit. When profit is the only value driving the system, great harm and damage will be done to people and the planet.
Capitalism as it is practiced today, is exploitive and extractive. The extreme inequality that impoverishes the masses of people and the degradation of the environment that is devastating the planet is evident everywhere.
Keep these 3-Ps in mind as you read this column: people, the planet, and profits.
Part Two: If We Can Imagine It, We Can Build It
The four horsemen of mega-shock provide the perfect opportunity to realign the economic system according to more humanistic principles and values. This isn’t just a preference; it is existential. Unless we change what we value in terms of how we organize our economy, the human species will be at risk of deterioration and even extinction.
This column suggests that we move away from capitalism as a one-dimensional system that prioritizes profit alone, to a more comprehensive system that values people, the planet, and profit, in that order.
Capitalism is only as compassionate, empathetic, and moral as the people running the system. It isn’t a static system or one that is perpetual. It can be changed, and it can be redesigned through human agency.
Now is the time to determine what the economic system of the next 25 years will look like. It will start by questioning all the basic assumptions that undergird the capitalist system.
WHAT IF? Imagining A New Economic System
Let’s begin to redesign this new capitalist system with a series of “what if” statements. Using our imagination could unlock some of the possibilities.
What if…capitalism were to value people over profits?
What if…capitalism were to value the planet over profits?
What if…we found out that valuing people and the planet was still profitable?
What if…we determined that every human being deserved to have enough food, shelter, healthcare, and education to thrive and have dignity?
What if…we discovered that the cost of investing in the basic needs of people paid back multiple times the investment and supercharged the economy?
What if…we determined that poverty and hunger were no longer an option for human beings and we designed a system to eradicate them?
What if…we used new technologies and innovations to improve the lives of all people, not just a few?
What if…businesses were more concerned with their impact on the planet and its sustainability than their bottom line?
What if…business models put human needs and happiness ahead of stockholder profits, but found out that stockholders were still winning?
What if…we decided that pooling resources for the good of society was better than hoarding wealth for a few people?
What if…AI was treated as a public good, owned by all, much like a utility, so that everyone could have access and benefit.
What if…we measured the economy for its environmental impact, human well-being, social services, and the amount of human happiness it creates?
What if…an equitable economy were a true goal, not requiring everyone to have the same amount but making sure certain groups of people are not substantially left behind, and wealth gaps were narrowed to insignificance?
None of this is wishful thinking. It can all be done. Many of these “what-ifs” are being implemented in various countries and companies today. This isn’t utopian thinking, it’s risk management for a planet on fire and a public weary of wealth hoarding and inequity.
This new model is not about abandoning capitalism. It’s about reimagining it in three specific ways: sustainably, consciously, and equitably, for a world where both machines and ecosystems define the limits of human flourishing.
The AI Disruption: Catalyst for a New Economy
The emergence of artificial intelligence will be the catalyst for such reimagining and redesigning.
AI and automation are poised to displace millions of jobs, particularly in administrative, transport, and manufacturing sectors. At the same time, they open new frontiers in science, medicine, and green infrastructure. Additionally, AI will supercharge productivity with few human inputs, leading to greater and greater profits.
Without an intentional redesign, these gains risk concentrating wealth further among elites, while destabilizing labor markets and deepening the social divide. The current polarization will only grow worse. The new economic design will need to provide equitable distribution of wealth in the AI revolution.
In this context, capitalism must shift from being extractive to regenerative, from shareholder primacy to stakeholder responsibility, and from short-term profit to long-term human and ecological resilience and progress.
A framework exists for these transitions. Here are three new pillars on which to draw a new design: Sustainable Capitalism, Conscious Capitalism, and new Wealth Equity tools.
First Pillar: Sustainable Capitalism As The Structural Overhaul
Sustainable capitalism is about using the tools of capitalism like investment, innovation, and competition, not just to generate profits, but to build a system that uplifts people and regenerates the planet. It's not anti-capitalist; it's a reimagining of capitalism to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
Five structural overhauls are needed to implement a sustainable capitalism model. They include:
Long-term investment strategies that account for climate risk, labor dignity, and community health. This model emphasizes sustainable profits and responsible growth over quarterly earnings. Short-term profitability is secondary to long-term sustainability.
A shift from stockholder capitalism to stakeholder capitalism is a second major overhaul. This model recognizes that businesses should serve not just shareholders, but also employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and the environment. That leads to the third overhaul.
A new ethos of environmental responsibility will need to replace the extractive and exploitive nature of capitalism today. Businesses will need to be taught how to internalize environmental costs (e.g., carbon emissions, pollution) and invest in clean energy, sustainable supply chains, and climate resilience.
Social equity as a major goal and responsibility of the capitalist system is the fourth overhaul. Support for fair wages, diversity and inclusion, and access to education, healthcare, and housing will need to become the goal. This means a living wage, healthcare for all, and adequate housing are considered part of the job package.
How we monitor and measure how well the economy is doing is a fifth overhaul. Currently, we typically look to metrics like GDP, inflation and unemployment rates. In a new economic model, we will need to change those metrics, such as assessing long-term value creation, ecological health, social equity, and corporate responsibility.
One example of these new metrics would assess the holistic impact of the economy on people, the planet, and profit. Here is what some of those specific metrics might include:
Instead of just domestic gross income (GDP), how about a “genuine progress indicator” (GPI) which adjusts GDP by accounting for pollution, inequality, education, and leisure time.
We could also include a “Human Development Index” (HDI), which measures life expectancy, education, and per capita income.
There is a Social Progress Index (SPI) that would measure basic needs, well-being, and opportunity, separate from economic output.
The Doughnut metric provides a ratio between the minimum standards for human well-being and planetary boundaries that must not be exceeded.
These metric overhauls and structural changes require a new generation of economists and entrepreneurs who understand the relationship between systems that impact people, the planet, and profit.
Second Pillar: Conscious Capitalism As The Moral Operating System
While sustainable capitalism works at the systemic level, conscious capitalism is needed to work at the organizational, personal, and leadership level. Changes to capitalism can only come with conscious value-based decision-making. Popularized by Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey and scholar Raj Sisodia, it’s grounded in four pillars:
Higher Purpose beyond profit - Businesses exist for reasons beyond just making money. For instance, Whole Foods Market's mission statement is to "nourish people and the planet."
Stakeholder Orientation, not just shareholder gains: Value is created for all stakeholders, not just shareholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and the environment.
Conscious Leadership is rooted in empathy and ethics: Leaders with strong humanistic values serve the mission of the company and its stakeholders, not just their self-interest.
Intentional Culture of trust, transparency, and collaboration: a company’s values, ethics, and sense of shared purpose are embedded in the workplace culture.
Where sustainable capitalism changes what rules the game, conscious capitalism changes how it’s played. Together, they create a humane, values-driven market system prioritizing people, the planet, and profit. It creates a win-win economic scenario where everyone profits and benefits.
Third Pillar: 21st Century Wealth Equity Tools
This third pillar gets us to the kitchen table issues. How are families to navigate a new economic model in an environment dominated by AI? How do we end the crushing and extreme inequality that defines our current system?
The solutions forming this pillar will allow those who have called me a communist to say, “Look, I told you so.” They would still be wrong. Creating an economic floor and not just a safety net for everyone within a capitalist system isn’t communism. It is sane, moral, and the right thing to do.
There is enough wealth in the world (even just in the United States) to provide a basic economic floor for every citizen. This is not a matter of lack of resources but the lack of will to distribute resources in a way to provide every family with the foundations for building wealth.
To make this new economy truly inclusive, we must address intergenerational and systemic inequality as well, particularly the racial wealth gap. But the racial gap is a humanity gap when you consider the number of Euro-Americans who live in poverty. These solutions are not meant ostensibly as racial only, but the wealth gap between African Americans and Euro Americans must be addressed.
Here are four proposals to accomplish this:
Universal Basic Income (UBI)
This is an idea whose time has come. It is being used in a limited fashion in several countries and cities in the United States. The results are promising.
UBI proposes regular, unconditional cash payments to every individual. It provides an economic floor as AI and automation displace jobs and empower people to pursue education, caregiving, or entrepreneurship without fear of destitution.
UBI would supplement income and replace the need for most social safety net programs. A guaranteed monthly income would end child poverty and provide an economic floor for every person on which to build further wealth. It could support new families on maternity/paternity leave, support job seekers in between jobs, or provide the necessities while students pursue higher education, reducing the need for student loans.
Funding models include progressive taxation, carbon or automation taxes, and sovereign wealth funds. The wealth is there, we simply need to redirect it.
Baby Bonds
Proposed by economists Darrick Hamilton and William Darity Jr., baby bonds provide every child, especially those from low-wealth families, a government-seeded trust fund at birth. The money grows over time and can be accessed in adulthood for college, homeownership, or business investment.
Senator Cory Booker’s proposal could narrow the racial wealth gap significantly over a generation. Here is how Booker’s bill, introduced in 2023, would work:
Initial Seed Funding would provide every child born in the United States a $1,000 "American Opportunity Account." The account would receive annual deposits based on family income, with lower-income households receiving larger contributions. Higher-income families would receive less or no additional contributions.
The funds would be invested in interest-bearing accounts, like 30-year Treasury bonds, and would be expected to grow over time. Account holders could access the funds beginning at age 18 and could be used for specific wealth-building activities, such as homeownership, higher education expenses, investing in a small business, or savings for retirement.
A program such as this aims to help children born into lower-income families build wealth and achieve long-term financial security. Along with a UBI, no child or family would have to live in poverty. Food security and future wealth building would increase exponentially over generations as wealth is passed on.
A Universal Education Model: From Early Learning Through College
Finally, two of the most important wealth-creating mechanisms are college education and homeownership. The new economy will help all Americans acquire both.
In Germany, Norway, and Finland, college is free for all, including international students. A few states are already providing free community college for all state residents. This is an important step in creating a new economy based on the 3-Ps.
Creating universal education through college is not only possible, it is going to be a necessity in the age of AI. The coming decades will require a workforce that continually learns new skills and achieves higher levels of education, both of which result in higher lifetime incomes. It requires political will, progressive funding, and a view of education not as a personal investment, but as a public good and a human right.
Doing away with the tuition model for higher education will end the crushing cycle of student debt. Instead of mountains of debt coming out of college, students will have a nest egg based on UBI, baby bonds, and free college education. This will revolutionize the economy. By unlocking human potential at scale, we not only prepare people for the future but also create the conditions for a more just, productive, and compassionate society.
Creative Strategies for Expanding Homeownership for Workers
Since the New Deal, homeownership has been the primary vehicle by which Americans have created generational wealth. We created the FHA, the GI Bill, and many other creative strategies to promote homeownership.
In the 21st Century, homeownership is slipping away from new generations because of skyrocketing costs and mortgages. It is time to get creative again. New homeownership tools are the last piece of our new economy. Below are several innovative approaches being tested or proposed around the world to ensure that working individuals and families can achieve stable, affordable homeownership and pass that wealth on to their children.
Burlington, Vermont, has successfully housed thousands through a Community Land Trust program. A CLT works through a nonprofit trust that owns the land, while individuals own the homes on it. This removes land from the speculative market, keeping prices low permanently.
San Francisco and Boston have Shared Equity Homeownership programs. In these programs, buyers purchase a home at a subsidized price. When they sell the home, they share the appreciation with the program or nonprofit.
Some cities, like Singapore, build homes that can be purchased at cost, not market rate, by working families. This turns housing into public infrastructure like a utility with the goal of making ownership accessible, not speculative.
Habitat for Humanity uses no-interest mortgages for low-income families, which allows low- and middle-income buyers to afford monthly payments and share in the upside later.
There are other creative ways to promote homeownership, such as housing cooperatives, lease-to-own multifamily properties, tiny-home villages, green mortgage subsidies, and AI-powered pre-approval systems. Traditional speculative markets and mortgages need to be revised and expanded to allow for more homeownership.
Conclusion: A Humane Economy for a Machine-Intelligent World
We are at a historic crossroads. AI offers immense potential, but only if embedded in an economy that values people over profit, and the planet over quarterly returns. Combining all these wealth equity tools together will end extreme inequality, allowing every citizen to build wealth based on a floor of guarantees.
A blend of sustainable capitalism, conscious leadership, and wealth redistribution tools like UBI and baby bonds offers a path forward toward an economy where everyone has a stake, every business has a purpose, and no one is left behind.
This isn’t a dream. It’s a blueprint. If you can imagine it, we can build it.
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