Gar Alperovitz's Blog, page 2
June 24, 2017
Gar Alperovitz on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour
Gar Alperovitz joined Ralph Nader on June 24, 2017to discuss his new book Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth and give an encouraging progress report on how the New Economy Movement is transforming the system.
It’s time to build new economic institutions that are democratic but also–critically–give us a new power base as well in the communities around the country.
June 21, 2017
Gar Alperovitz on Forthright Radio
If the design of corporate capitalism is unable to sustain values of equality, genuine democracy, liberty, and ecological sustainability as a matter of inherent systemic architecture, what systemic ‘design’ might ultimately achieve and sustain these values? and
How specifically might it be possible to move forward, especially in difficult political times, to lay foundations for a transformation in the direction of a serious new systemic answer?
Gar Alperovitz joined Joy LaClaire on Forthright Radio on June 21, 2017 to respond to these questions and discuss his new handbook, Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth.
June 13, 2017
Progressive Visions: The Pluralist Commonwealth
Read Dan Sisken’s review of Gar’s book, Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth, on Progressive Strategy. Sisken highlights the many successful examples of alternative forms of ownership and economic institutions across the United States that Gar features in his book:
These are just a few of the building blocks put forth as part of a pluralist commonwealth. Among the others addressed in the book are climate change, decentralization, culture, democracy, liberty, investment, markets, technology, and trade. There is a short chapter that explains how each of these plays a role in the pluralist commonwealth that may be starting to appear on the horizon.
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The Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth proposes building blocks that help progressives and others envision something different that works for everyone.
June 1, 2017
C-Span BookTV: Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth
Gar Alperovitz launched his new book Principles of a Pluralist Commonwealth on June 1st where he was joined by Robert Borosage, the co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future. C-SPAn’s Book TV was on hand to film the talk. Gar argues that the U.S. needs an economic and political system that departs from both capitalism and socialism and discusses his model, the Pluralist Commonwealth.
May 6, 2017
Gar Alperovitz, co-founder, Democracy Collaborative, and co-chair, The Next System Project, speaks with Diane Horn about buying out the fossil fuel industry to address climate change
On May 6, 2017, Gar Alperovitz appeared as a guest on Mind Over Matters on 90.3FM KEXP- Seattle. Gar spoke with host, Diane Horn, during the Sustainability Segment, about buying out the oil companies using quantitative easing in order to remove the political obstacle to the major actions needed to address climate change.
Click here to listen to the full program.
April 26, 2017
The Policy Weapon Climate Activists Need
In this article published in The Nation, Gar Alperovitz, Joe Guinan, and Thomas M. Hanna, make the case for using quantitative easing as the knockout punch that shuts down the fossil fuel industry before the climate bubble pops. As window for acting on climate change, the government could use the same tool it used to save the economy from depression to save the climate from burning.
We’re running out of time on climate change. As Donald Trump and Big Oil’s other friends in Washington do their utmost to keep global temperatures climbing, our window for preserving civilization is closing fast. Yes, solar, wind, batteries, and energy efficiency are plummeting in cost and grabbing market share the world over, but this clean-energy transformation is not proceeding anywhere near fast enough to prevent catastrophic climate disruption. The science is clear on what’s most needed: We must leave the vast majority of Earth’s remaining reserves of oil, coal, and gas unburned and underground. But those reserves are the basis of the stock prices of some of the richest, most powerful companies in history. And those companies give every indication that they plan to keep burning them, science and humanity be damned.
Click here to read the full article.
The post The Policy Weapon Climate Activists Need appeared first on Gar Alperovitz.
March 13, 2017
How Philanthropy Can Help Community Development Survive Trump
Trump’s presidency will likely do significant damage to community development especially for the communities that are most at risk. While philanthropy will certainly not be able to fill the massive gap left by cuts in federal spending, if used in the right way, it can help create local and regional programs and innovations that could be expanded when the political winds inevitably shift, contend Gar Alperovitz and Ted Howard in an article for The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Donald Trump will not be president forever, but in his time in office he can do substantial damage in many areas of American life. As one donor told us, “We risk having 40 years of progress in community development unraveled in the next 18 months.”
Principally, that’s because the new administration, along with Republican congressional leaders, is targeting federal spending on social programs and community development — a major bulwark against the consequences of generational poverty and ever-growing wealth inequality. Hundreds of billions of dollars are at risk.
Click here to read the full article.
The post How Philanthropy Can Help Community Development Survive Trump appeared first on Gar Alperovitz.
March 2, 2017
The Possibility of a Pluralist Commonwealth Evolutionary Reconstruction Toward a Caring and Just Political Economy
In this article published in the Winter 2017 issue of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies, Gar Alperovitz outlines the characteristics of the “Pluralist Commonwealth” model and the step-by-step movements that are already happening toward a democratic political economy that supports caring community.
New developments at various level of the political-economic system suggest possible institutional trajectories supportive of community, and a longer term systemic design more supportive of strong democracy and a caring culture. An integration of institutional elements also offers possibilities more productive of equality and ecologically sustainable outcomes. The “Pluralist Commonwealth” is both pluralist in its institutional characteristics and supportive of such “commonwealth” institutions as co-operatives, neighborhood land trusts and community corporations, municipal utilities and a range of other larger scale ownership forms. An “evolutionary reconstructive” institutional, political, and cultural path is projected as a longer term transformative process different from both traditional reform and traditional ideas of revolution. Such a path inherently seeks to maximize the development of a caring community as it builds.
Click here to read the full article.
The post The Possibility of a Pluralist Commonwealth Evolutionary Reconstruction Toward a Caring and Just Political Economy appeared first on Gar Alperovitz.
December 16, 2016
Technological Inheritance and the Case for a Basic Income
In this article originally published by the Economic Security Project on December 16, 2016, Gar Alperovitz makes a case for a universal basic income, beginning with the understanding that most income is, in fact, a gift from the past, or a “technological inheritance.”
One or another form of unconditional “basic income” has now been advocated by individuals ranging from conservative economists like the late Nobel Prize winner Milton Friedman to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Modern feminists concerned with “care work” have emphasized versions of it, as have Black activists facing an economy that simply does not provide jobs for millions of people.
Leaving aside numerous questions about how best to structure a basic income, the idea of providing people with income as a matter of right — whether or not they do what society considers “work” — runs into age-old concerns about individual responsibility as well as endless arguments about political and economic equity. Until these are confronted, the prospect of significant change in the direction of any form of basic income is clearly highly uncertain.
Click here to read the full article.
The post Technological Inheritance and the Case for a Basic Income appeared first on Gar Alperovitz.
December 1, 2016
The Demanding Challenge of Community in an Era of Systemic Transformation
On December 1st, 2016, Gar Alperovitz delivered the plenary lecture at the Pendle Hill Moral Economy Conference in Wallingford, PA, discussing the challenges of building a new community-sustaining political economy:
From Black Lives Matter and climate change activists to Senator Bernie Sanders political organizers, a new movement is building the basis of a historic transformation. How, specifically, can the creation of a meaningful democratic and moral community became central to the transformation of the largest corporate capitalist system in the history of the world? How, specifically, can we build from community to confront some of the larger order challenges true systemic change will require?
Click here to watch Gar’s lecture.
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