One cannot simultaneously indulge in the so-called “profit principle” as a principle of profit maximization and take business ethics seriously. A principle represents the first or highest aspect of conduct. By explaining the maximization of a certain value orientation, e.g. profit, into a “principle,” all possible conflicting aspects are subordinated unchecked. Thus it is profit… Continue reading
Sharing is not a Market Failure
Republished from Philippe Aigrain: “An endless stream of law proposals, soft-law initiatives and free-trade agreements keeps trying to eradicate or prevent the non-market sharing of digital works between individuals. New strategies are pushed using incentives and threats so that intermediaries will police the Internet to save the scarcity-based business models of a few from the… Continue reading
Cooperative Transitions for a Resilient Economy (4): Fossil Fuel Free Kristianstad
* Book: The Resilience Imperative. Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy. by Michael Lewis & Pat Conaty The wonderful and important book by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty describes the important social innovations that will be an indispensable part of the emerging new economy. It’s one of the best guides and we highly recommend it… Continue reading
Noam Chomsky: We must defend the global commons!
Excerpted from Noam Chomsky’s American University of Beyrouth speech: “I’ve visited Lebanon several times, moments of great hope, and also of despair, tinged with remarkable determination to overcome and to move forward. The first time I visited – if that’s the right word – was exactly 60 years ago, almost to the day. My wife… Continue reading
Project of the Day: CECOSESOLA, the task-based cooperative in Lara, Venezuela
CECOCESOLA = the Central Cooperative for Social Services of Lara: “A cooperative where there are no positions, only tasks to be done”. “The Central Cooperative for Social Services of Lara (CECOSESOLA) is technically a cooperative of cooperatives, but the name is a little deceiving. When the new Cooperative Law was passed in 2001 allowing the… Continue reading
Cooperative Transitions for a Resilient Economy (3): The Co-operative Land Bank
* Book: The Resilience Imperative. Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy. by Michael Lewis & Pat Conaty The wonderful and important book by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty describes the important social innovations that will be an indispensable part of the emerging new economy. It’s one of the best guides and we highly recommend it… Continue reading
Dale Carrico on the inevitability of mixed economic and societal models
The ongoing generational churn of the plurality of stakeholders who make up the present world, peer to peer, ensures that the ongoing accomplishment of equity-in-diversity is endlessly renegotiated, re-enacted, re-figured. What tends to be called “capitalism” and “socialism” are historically unrealized, logically unrealizable derangements of either the diversity dimension or of the equity dimension of… Continue reading
Book of the Day: Economic Bicameralism in the Firm
* (French) book: Gouverner le capitalisme? Pour le bicamérisme économique. PUF, 2012 The author, Isabelle Ferreras, explains why this book is important: “Everyone knows that a job means more than a paycheck, particularly in a service-based economy, where workplaces are the locus of constant interpersonal interactions. And yet the predominant theories of the firm, whether… Continue reading
Cooperative Transitions for a Resilient Economy (2): Mutual Home Ownership
* Book: The Resilience Imperative. Cooperative Transitions to a Steady-state Economy. by Michael Lewis & Pat Conaty The wonderful and important book by Michael Lewis and Pat Conaty describes the important social innovations that will be an indispensable part of the emerging new economy. It’s one of the best guides and we highly recommend it… Continue reading
Project of the Day: ARIA’s open source drones for food transport
“ARIA, Autonomous Roadless Intelligent Array, is an open source autonomous logistics infrastructure (Dronenet) that leapfrogs traditional road infrastructure”: 1. ARIA today (June 10) announced a strategic open innovation partnership with Ooooby to augment it’s local food delivery network using autonomous aerial vehicles (commonly known as drones). Under the partnership’s goal, Ooooby, an online farmers market,… Continue reading