An economic system in which our testimonies can flourish

1. An economic system in which our testimonies can flourish BYM 2012

2. What’s gone wrong? • Inequality has increased both globally and in UK since about 1975 – (equality & community) • We’re promoting economic growth, which doesn’t make people feel any happier – (simplicity) • We’re running out of planet – no respect for limited natural resources – (sustainability) • Our system encourages selfish values and anxiety about image and success – (truth, equality) • Our system encourages war over resources (which may now be diminishing because of climate change and depletion) – (peace)

3. What’s the root of the problem? What needs to change for an economy in which the testimonies can flourish? • 1. Market failure • 2. Bad Values – Consumerism, economic growth, belief markets will sort everything out etc. • 3. Globalization • 4. Money as debt • 5. Patterns of ownership

4. 1.Market failure • Sometimes prices don’t reflect the social or environmental costs and benefits – so state should use tax system to correct. (tax carbon, pollution, not jobs) • Some goods not valued on the market at all – so we need more markets (eg carbon market) • Some goods are public or collective – state should see they are provided (like defence, forests, more equality) • Some goods are basic to life and everyone has a right to have them: health care, education, legal aid, ?home heating? Rationing by need is fairer than ability to pay • Need to reduce inequality and increase revenue by limiting tax avoidance

5. And another thing: the market is not quick at dealing with large changes, such as shift to wartime economy or to an earth-sustaining one. Diagon left from New Scientist, up to 2000, on right, future prognosis using adapted “Limits to Growth” methodology

6. 2. Values • How far do we value relationships as well as things in our economic institutions and practices? • Is greed an acceptable motivation? Perhaps it is bolstered by insecurity and fosters lies? • Relative importance of community vs. individualism? Is this really a contradiction? • Responsibility vs freedom (and for companies?) • Being a consumer or a citizen? • Rediscovering connectedness witheach other, with nature, and our true needs. (Green economics; Ecopsychology, Faith perspectives) Enshrining this in law (eg ecocide)

7. Values • The work has to be personal, cultural and spiritual

8. 3. Globalization • Is it an inevitable economic process, what corporations and nations must do to continue growing? (capital seeks continued accumulation?) Or even to survive • Is it a political agenda of neoliberalism? • Or is it a value system, an ideology, against which we can promote localization?

9. Promoting localization • Again, cultivating an ethic – local identity, culture, loyalty. Place matters, quality. • Procurement by councils and businesses (inc schools) • Cultivating relationships between local producers and consumers (eg farmers markets) • Creating local enterprises, (inc co-ops, social enterprises) strengthening local resilience • Building alliances with local business • Local currencies and preference schemes

10. 4. Money • Money created as debt (as ours mostly is) means everyone is paying interest. • Ie giving more to those that already have • Businesses HAVE to grow to repay interest. Countries often have to asset strip environmental resources to repay loans. • Solution: Democratically controlled money issued as credit. (eg by State, or local govt).

11. 5. Concentrated ownership • Inequality breeds inequality in our system. • Redistribution through the tax system isn’t enough. The distribution of property – the means to produce a living - has to change. • In poor countries and communities, land ownership is crucial. Many would-be UK farmers are landless too

12. Today, as well as land, we need democratic/community control of other means of production such as large productive enterprises. This means • Changing governance of joint stock companies so they are more responsive to environmental & social goals (triple bottom line). Eg increasing representation of employees and communities on board; transferring shares gradually to workforce; where govt owns shares, rep on board(eg RBS) • Increasing share of social enterprises (benefits to community) or co-ops (benefits to employees or members) – both run democratically

13. The money/private land ownership system began to emerge in biblical times, with moneylenders, and large landowners using wage labour The Bible documents resistance strategies: • Prophetic critique • Legal regulation – debt relief etc • Resistance to totalitarian empires – direct action • Living alternatively in small groups – leaven • Love/solidarity and alternative to (imperial Roman) law and greed

14. A democratic economy: • Politics needs to control economy not vice versa . (Change to party funding; and what about the media?) • Well-being, good livelihoods and the planet, not GDP • Markets - regulated & controlled to bring private advantage and social good nearer together • Defence of the public realm and role of state: Basic needs and public goods allocated by collective decision, ie. through politics, eg health services • Ownership: Small businesses and democratic enterprises (Co-ops and social enterprise). JS companies not governed by shareholders only. • Money creation by democratic government • Redistribution - tax system and eg Land Value Tax