Power in our economy is currently concentrated in the hands of a few.
Mike Jakubal adjusts his mobile, narrow-kerf bandsaw mill on a logging site in northern California.
To achieve reliable prosperity, capital should be invested in sectors and activities consistent with Reliable Prosperity. This will require it to be rooted more locally, in Local Economies and Bioregional Economies, and spread much more in Household Economies.
Green Business are the economic engines of reliable prosperity. They make use of Renewable Energy, better Materials Cycles, and Resource Efficiency. They provide Community Benefit and are stewarded with Long-Term Profitability in mind.
Currently, Green Business suffer from a lack of True Cost Pricing, sometimes making their products more expensive than those of competitors that externalize social and environmental costs. However, increasing demands for green products and services, particularly those with reliable Product Labeling systems, is creating strong new market niches and premium prices. As social and environmental taxes are gradually instituted, green businesses will be in position take positions of market leadership.
Financial institutions that understand the benefits of reliable prosperity will play a vital role in shifting capital from sunset industries to 21st Century restorative industries, including wind power, hydrogen fuel cells, Ecosystem Services, Green Building, ecological Agriculture, Forestry, and holistic healthcare. Commercial and investment banks, venture capital funds, loan funds, and other financial institutions that make loans based on Society and Nature as well as economic performance will ultimately finance the Just Transitions to reliable prosperity.
Capital should be understood primarily as a tool to meet Fundamental Needs while maintaining the health of ecosystems. When capital is broadly distributed and locally accountable, it can serve this function well. Therefore, reliable prosperous patterns of ownership, financial institutions, and policies all favor broadly shared wealth rather than narrow accumulation, and Local Assets rather than transnational flows of capital.
Find ways to finance the just transition of economic capital from sunset industries to the sectors of reliable prosperity. Root capital in place and make it much more broadly distributed.