If success in the old economy is the key to access the New Economy, we will fail.
Success in the old economy as a requirement for access to the New Economy is flawed logic, unsustainable and, oppressive, and poses a practical threat to the entire Solidarity Economy Movement. It will manifest as a New Economy that failed to scale in the worst case, and at best be white supremacist, if left unchecked. We must act now in the early parts of this century for our mutual escape from the shadow of the old, lest it heap shade on and taint our New Economy.
Corporations, family businesses, old economy models and, cooperatives, all have a group of people’s interests at their core. Be they shareholders, family members, investors or even the smallest group of an individual, old economy models have a small group of people at the apex, reflected in the 1% concentration of wealth the world over. Cooperatives, by bucking the traditional apex flow of out and up, place a larger group at the center, and since many are place-based, the flow often goes back into the community. Still, both have a group of people at the core of their interests, but co-ops won’t usually burn down the world profits, like some companies old economy institutions are doing. The old and New Economy share at least one other characteristic too: their pathways to the “inside” – their access points for participation in ownership, are based on explicit and implicit criteria.
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