Re: What's Wrong With America?

Islander wrote:

You call it something else. See "Capitalism 3.0" by Peter Barnes.
He advocates taking a number of issues outside conventional capitalism
and government control. He argues that there are specific rights that
everyone should have which are a part of the commons as he defines it.
His proposal is to establish self-supporting trusts that assure that
these rights are protected in perpetuity.

The problem of the "commons" is fairly well known. For those who may be unfamiliar, the concept is that all assets are pooled in common, and each contributor takes out only what is proportional to his/her contribution/need.

The problem arises when human nature reverts to form, and some participants are perceived to be taking more from the commons than they are presumably entitled to. Since the commons depends on trust and personal integrity rather than enforcement and regulation, soon resentment and envy destroy it.

Were the ordinary citizen committed to the idealistic principles implicit in such a system, the country (or the world) might indeed be the utopia that people such as Barnes envision. Unfortunately, reality always trumps such elitist pipe-dreams.
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