So here’s the good news: we absolutely have the ability to solve our current global environmental, social and economic crises.
The not-so-good news: Do we have the will to do it? From my perspective, the challenge is not about technology, but rather about consciousness, values and priorities. We must move from one extreme of the dichotomy to another: from me to we.
Currently, we’re in the grey area. With two million NGOs working to save the world, the challenge is to cooperate rather than compete for resources and attention. Together, we can make rapid progress and transformational change. Alone, we will all fail, only making incremental change.
Pension funds, foundations, not-for-profits, educational institutions, credit unions and other socially and financially responsible entities control huge financial resources, but they don’t use their assets to invest in solutions. Instead, they give away a little money every year, but keep the principle invested in companies that perpetuate our problems. They don’t cooperate with each other to insist on change. They could. It’s about will and commitment.
Our system is broken. We’re headed at 90 miles per hour into a brick wall. Right now, all we do is tap gently on the breaks and celebrate as our speed slows temporarily down to 89. The brakes work. We can stop the car and change direction. The question is – will we? The alternative gives us our answer.
I have been thinking lately on the financial services sector and it has left me rather depressed. We know that the current economic crisis is the result of the actions and behaviors within our financial sector. There is no other obvious or intelligent explanation. Like the South Sea Bubble or the Tulip Bubble – this global catastrophe was the direct result of financial engineering. But because our political institutions are so controlled by the financial sector – far more than any other sector – the reforms that came out of the collapse were timid – and is being generous. So when you go to a conference on community investment and Goldman Sachs is a co-sponsor you begin to smell the odor of prolonged failure in the air. It would be as if we thought that Boeing and Raytheon should sponsor disarmament conferences. The toxic combination of a largely unregulated financial services industry and the blind adherence to the principle of profit maximization spells doom for any long-term meaningful reform. If that is true – and I am increasingly of the opinion that it is – then we will be left with no alternative other than trying to move capital out of the sector and into alternative capital institutions that behave in ways that support sustainable investment practices. And therein is the problem. Because the overwhelming weight of our capital resources at every level are controlled by a small elite that have no one with enough counter-weight influence to make them change the globally destructuve behavior that brought on the last collapse. I believe in change and I believe in building sustainable communities and models – but I also believe that we are running out of time and we do not have the power or resources to change the fundamental model for moving capital in positive directions. Anyone with ideas on how to do this? I’m all ears!!!