[Here's one last framework brain dump. I think I've gotten as far as I can for now, so I'm going to let this simmer on a back burner for a while.]
Right now, the economy isn’t working for most of us. It isn’t surprising, because right now our society is shaping our economy based on the values of big corporations and the rich.
We don’t really see it, because of a sleight-of-hand/shell game our society plays. We pretend that most of us only want the government to play a small role in the economy — that’s how we end up with “keep the government’s hands off my Medicare” — and we pretend that political power plays a small role in the economy.
If we want a future where country worth fighting for, we need to stop playing these games and start talking about how to get an economy that’s based in our values. To do that, we need to answer 3 questions:
What values should shape our economy?
Who gets to decide?
How do we translate our values into the real world?
What
Stack the Odds In Favor of the Good Guys
Get Real: making tough decisions (versus NIMBY-ism)
Who (Power)
Democracy = everybody should have a real say
But voting isn’t enough. To have real democracy, we need to deal with power
Checks and Balances
You Haven’t Succeeded until It’s Politically Sustainable
Get Real: Confronting Conflicting Interests (versus carbon tax folks)
Mobilize over “Pony up”
How
No Magic Wand — free-market cheerleaders say “government bureaucrats can’t be smarter than the market.” But any intervention, including “market-based” solutions, runs into the same problem.
We Aren’t As Smart As We Think We Are
So what do we do?
Create/nurture markets
Make it easy (a.k.a., people & organizations aren’t calculators)
Ban some actions
Feedback loops & hold people accountable (e.g., Wall Street and creating good jobs)
