Radical Economy

"sheep in wolves' clothing...lost in the economically meaningless, in the utterly trivial, in the strategically banal: mostly, they're cutting deals with one another to...try and sell more ads. That is, when they're not too busy partying."

Radical Economy explained and illustrated

 
  • Instructie
  • Radical Economy
  • Video RE 1
  • Video RE 2
  • Video RE 3
  • Video RE 4
  • Video RE 5
  • Zombie Eco
  • Feedback

Instructie

People like Umair Haque argues that bottom up asymmetrical experiences like Google and Apple represent a different way of thinking about how business is organized. In a different discussion, Umair talked about how Wal-Mart is refactoring its business to reflect the needs of a sustainable business that can trade well into the future without blowing up world resources. In this sense, he is arguing for self-regulation of a very different kind to that which we have seen in the past. Whether this will happen is moot but the conditions are right for change of this kind. Asked Umair Haque to give his top three predictions for the next 12 months, he said:

  • There will be a lot more turbulence to come.
  • The introduction of new forms of institution, especially in the US, that reflect the notion of ideals. The alternative is a significant backlash from those who elected Obama on the promise of change.
  • A need to re-evaluate what sustainability means beyond the obvious green issues to include new forms of consumption.

Socially useless business is what has created a global economy on life support. Socially useless business is what has created a jobless "recovery" and mass unemployment amongst the young. Socially useless business is why we don't have a better education, healthcare, finance, energy, transportation, or media industry. Socially useless business is a culture in shock, reeling from assault after assault on the fabric of community and comity. Socially useless business is the status quo — and the status quo says: "You don't matter. Our bottom line is the only thing that matters."

So there's a single, simple, fundamental question every decision-maker should be asking today. How useless is your business? To answer it, you've got to stop thinking in yesterday's terms. Forget the decades-long obsession with business models for a second. It's time to think anti-business models. Anti-business models are models companies use to profit without doing anything socially useful.

Somewhere out there is a Constructive Capitalist who's going to use the power of meaningful economics to relegate you to the dustbin of economic history — just like Google and Apple are doing to big media, Wal-Mart's doing to big food, FMCG, and retail, and Nike's doing to shoes.

Invul Formulier

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