The beginning of a personal journey: Common Welfare Economy
After a little over a month in the IMSD program, I have had the chance to learn about many different subjects, get closer to countries I barely knew existed and get to know people from all over the world. I decided to join the program because I felt like “something was missing” in my life, both at a personal and a professional level. The journey has just began, but I already feel like I’m on the right track.
The journey begins…
I have come across a huge amount of information in class and this has definitely changed the way in which I filter external information. Some things have just passed by, but I feel like some others are meant to stay with me forever, in one way or another. One of those things I came across by pure chance, while watching TV one random evening, is the initiative of the Common Welfare Economy, which I would love to share with all of you.
Here you can find the recording of the TV show I saw on October 29th, a moment that definitely had a high impact in me and that I hope you enjoy (truly sorry, it’s only available in Spanish):
The first thing we talked about in our Development Perspectives class was the definition of development. “[…] a strong, dynamic, open and growing global economy”, “[…] advancing the richness of human life rather than the richness of the economy in which human beings live, which is only a part of it”, “expanding the choices people have to lead lives that they value”, “promoting environmental rehabilitation and empowering people to do things for themselves”, “a change for good”…We also learned that adding the sustainability ingredient in the mix brings these concepts to a whole different level that entails a balance among social, sustainable, environmental, equitable, economic, viable and/or bearable issues.
Only by reviewing these first definitions and approaches, I can already tie them to the rationale behind the Common Welfare Economy. This is a new economic model that pretends to be a true alternative to the current global predominant economic system. I think it’s helpful to understand this initiative to know some of its main premises that I will now just briefly review, but that I plan on analyzing in detail in coming posts:
– The cornerstones for this movement are the collectively shared values of confidence building, cooperation, appreciation, democracy and solidarity, which allow the fulfillment of interpersonal relationships in order to reach happiness and leverage motivation
– The over-valued principles of competition and profit-eagerness should be changed for those of cooperation and the pursuit of the common good through new regulatory incentives (shift from valuing financial profit to valuing the effects on common welfare)
– Need for common welfare to be defined through a participatory “bottom-up” process, to be taken by an economic constitutional convention that is elected democratically and to be included in the constitution through a referendum
– New balance sheet to measure how companies adhere to social, ecological, democratic and solidary principles (the more adherence, the higher the common welfare score will be)
– The higher such score is, the better legal advantages the companies receive in terms of taxes, loans, research grants, etc.
– Capital is no longer a means, but an ends to increase the common good (profits to be used in social/ecological investments, distributed to employees, etc. instead of investments in financial markets)
– By removing profit as the main objective, companies will not fear competition and will not aim at growing at any cost
– Inequality in income and wealth will be limited through fixed amounts (for instance, a cap on individual wealth at 10 million or on maximum salaries at 20 times the minimum wage) and surpluses used as democratic endowments distributed to next generations
– Companies over 250 employees will be partially owned by employees and the public while companies over 5.000 employees will be fully owned by employees and the public. Also, the government will not control public companies.
– Democratic Commons: enterprises that will offer services of general interest such as education, health, social welfare, mobility, energy, communication and banking
– New subjects should be taught in schools, such as values and ethics, communication, democracy, nature and environmental education, etc.
– Need for new leadership skills adapted to this new philosophy (social responsibility, competence, empathy, compassion, etc.)
This is a lot of food for thought – much to digest, but delicious -, but already provides a hint on the wide scope and tremendous implications of this initiative with regards to global sustainable development. For me, it’s clear that we have to do something, we have to act before it’s too late, and this theory, undoubtedly, is a great starting point. I’ll keep on digging into the model to analyze all these aspects and will share my reflections with all of you.
Hope that you join me in this journey, enjoy it with me and share your questions, ideas or concerns meanwhile. Your insights will be greatly appreciated!
Comments Off on The beginning of a personal journey: Common Welfare Economy /
26 Nov 2012
por
Sara Gil Vacas
IMSD /
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