新兴的所有权革命

武夷山

The Futurist（未来学家）杂志2012年11／12月号发表了Rick Docksai的书评，题目为The Economy of, By, andFor the People（民有、民治、民享的经济），评论的是Marjorie Kelly的Owning Our Future：The Emerging OwnershipRevolution（《把握我们的未来：新兴的所有权革命》。博主注：题目是一语双关的，另一层含义是：通过改变所有权关系来创造未来）。书评说：

一系列共产党国家的垮台，使得某些评论者声称，资本主义是唯一可玩的游戏了。本书反映了在社会基层发生的许多情况，表明资本主义并非是唯一出路。有一批具有前瞻眼光的企业家正在扬弃两种意识型态当中最坏的那些东西，构建新的财产拥有方式，创造出既肯定个人价值又有益于集体的利润。

该书目录如下（由于没有原著，只能按照标题字面意思大致翻译一下，仅供参考）：

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by DavidKorten，前言

Prologue: TheJourney Ahead，序：未来之路

Part One: TheOverbuilt House of Claims，造得过大的索取之屋

Chapter 1: Debt, Inc.:Extractive Design，债务公司：消耗式的设计

Chapter 2: The CommunityBank: Generative Design，社区银行：生成式的设计

Chapter 3: Wall Street:Capital Markets on Autopilot，华尔街：自动驾驶仪的资本市场

Chapter 4: Overload: TheExpanding House of Claims，过载：索取之屋越来越大

Chapter 5: Collapse: TheEroding Middle-Class Base，崩溃：中产阶级基础正在分崩离析

Part Two:Returning to Earth（回归现实）

Chapter 6: Waking Up: FromMaximizing Profits to Sustaining Life，觉醒：从利润最大化到维系生命

Chapter 7: The Island: FromGrowth to Sufficiency，岛屿：从不断增长到自给自足

Chapter 8: Bringing Forth aWorld: From Individualism to Community，开创新世界：从个人主义到社区

Part Three:Creating Living Companies（创立活的公司）

Chapter 9: Living Purpose:Creating the Conditions for Life，活生生的使命：为生活创造条件

Chapter 10: Rooted Membership:Ownership in Living Hands，根深蒂固的成员关系：掌握在“活”人手中的所有权

Chapter 11: Mission-ControlledGovernance: Humans at the Helm，使命控制的治理：人类掌舵

Chapter 12: StakeholderFinance: Capital as Friend，利益相关者金融：作为朋友的资本

Chapter 13: Ethical Networks:Reinforcing Shared Values，伦理网络：强化共享的价值观

Epilogue: Next，跋：下一步

《未来学家》杂志发表的书评原文如下（http://www.wfs.org/futurist/november-december-2012-vol-46-no-6/economy-and-for-people）：

An Economy Of, By, and For the People

OwningOur Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution

Author(s): Marjorie Kelly

Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2012)

Binding: Paperback, 288 pages

ListPrice: $19.95

Order thisbook on Amazon.com.

By Rick Docksai

In Owning Our Future, business ethicistMarjorie Kelly envisions commerce that makes human well-being, not wealth, itsgoal.

Although economic stagflation may be everywhere welook, seeds of a new, healthy, ecologically sustainable economy that serves themany appear to be sprouting. Marjorie Kelly, director of ownership strategy atCutting Edge Capital, calls this new mode the generative economy. Itencompasses many different business models, but they have a common trait:private ownership for the common good.

Generative design creates stability by avoidingexcess, Kelly explains. These schemes generate wealth for their owners, but notto the extreme degree of today’s institutions. They are set up expressly sothat too much wealth does not end up concentrated in a select few hands. Moreimportantly, these businesses operate under clearly stated ethical frameworksand societal missions. Their founders direct them to serve community needs, notto maximize profit.

“They know it’s possible to have plenty and recognizethat enough is enough,” Kelly writes. “There are other things they value morehighly, like being happy, living authentically, feeling alive. Living well incommunity. Leaving the world a better place.”

Examples are emerging everywhere. The “solidarityeconomy”—cooperatives and nonprofits—is catching on in Latin America andCanada. Quebec has formally recognized it as an economic sector and nowregularly funds it.

Other examples:

·        TheUnited Kingdom’s building societies are member-owned banking organizations.Because the customers are the owners, the banks exist to serve their needs, notto enrich shareholders. They have far lower-than-average rates of foreclosuresand loan defaults to show for it, since borrowers obtain loans under fair termsand can work out reasonable payment arrangements.

·        ABritish supermarket company, John Lewis Partnership, states its mission ascommitment to the happiness of its employees. Each employee has partialownership in the company, and between 40% and 60% of every year’s after-taxprofits go directly to the employees as bonuses and salary increases. And onone occasion, when one of its warehouses had to shut down, the managementhelped the displaced employees to write résumés and find new jobs elsewhere.

·        Minnesota’senergy cooperative Minwind operates the first farmer-owned wind-power turbinesin the United States. All shareholders live in Minnesota, and 85% of theinvestors come from rural communities. The company is a sharp departure fromthe traditional business model under which farmers build wind turbines on theirland but lease away the rights to absentee developers; the farmers themselvesget to claim the wealth.

Society today wrongly believes that wealth creation isa virtually limitless process, according to Kelly. She argues that growthalways has limits, and every economy eventually reaches them. She sharplydistinguishes the real economy versus the financial economy, which consists ofclaims on the actual money of the real economy.

The financial economy is now four times as big as thereal economy, which means that the world’s financial system rests upon amultitude of claims to money that no one has the money to actually pay! Itsoutcome is already obvious: financial crashes, like the one that swept theworld in 2008.

Kelly places hope in such generative design models asthe building societies, John Lewis, and Minwind. With their commitments totheir communities and to their rank-and-file employees, they are examples ofthe responsible and sustainable business practices that the global economy socritically needs.

“As we make the painful turn into a newera—characterized by climate change, water shortages, species extinction, vastunemployment, stagnant wages, staggering differentials in health, and bloateddebt loads—the industrial-age model of ownership is beginning to make lesssense,” she writes. “It’s time to move beyond growth, to recognize that theeconomy as we once knew it will never return. Nor should it.”

The twentieth century saw a worldwide clash ofcapitalism and communism, and communism’s collapse left commentatorsproclaiming that capitalism is the only game in town. Marjorie Kelly’sground-level reporting proves that it is not: Forward-thinking entrepreneursare renouncing the worst aspects of both ideologies and constructing new waysof owning property and creating profits that affirm the individual while alsobenefiting the collective. Readers who long for a more just economic order willfind an abundance of provocative ideas in Owning Our Future.

About the Reviewer

Rick Docksai is associate editor for THE FUTURIST and WorldFuture Review. Email rdocksai@wfs.org.